People Magazine, 4 Star Rating:

"Tramble is a hell of a writer with an ear for the spoken word. And she can go hard-boiled with the best of them: Gems like 'He mainlined failure straight to the vein' appear on every page. With The Last King, Tramble catapults to the upper echelon of crime noir."

Kansas City Star:

"In Nichelle D. Tramble's beautifully written The Last King, the streets of Oakland seethe with violence so volatile that the pages practically crackle. The book's evocative atmosphere, realistic dialogue and poignant hopelessness make for some powerful reading."

Fort Worth Star Telegram:

"Tramble captures the darkness of the old Hammett/Chandler whodunit style, with a contemporary street edginess."

January Magazine:

"Tramble is an author to watch and read enthusiastically. In her fiction, she strips away the complicating layers of both place and character, and finds the underlying essence and raison d'etre that brings her players alive. Tramble is magnamious to the people who populate her books. She understands them, she forgives them and sometimes scolds them, all with a huge heart."

NPR:

"Oakland is usually lost in San Francisco's shadow, but in this book, you get such a sense of Oakland -- how it's laid out, it's social structures. Tramble does for Oakland what Walter Mosley does for Los Angeles, or what Patricia Cornwell did for Richmond."

Crime Spree Magazine:

"Nichelle D. Tramble has created a modern noir tale that tells a tale that can be told in every city. But Tramble tells it with an urban prose and ballsy narrative that makes this book a contemporary tale of romance and tragedy."

San Francisco Chronicle

"Tramble offers a view of Oakland that doesn't appear enough in contemporary fiction, and she has a fine ear for dialogue."

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