["The Genoa Ferry"] falls into no easy category. It is part murder mystery, in which a man tries to ascertain the facts about the death of his stepbrother. It is part travelogue, in which the smells and rottenness of a North African city are vividly described. It is partly a novel of ideas, with much attention paid to a grubby set of characters and their motivations. The ending is sheer Grand Guignol. And the whole book is full of alienation symbols. Whether or not Harwood was inspired by some of the North African stories of Paul Bowles, "The Genoa Ferry" is an unusually gripping piece of writing that can rank with the Bowles books. (p. 36)

Newgate Callendar, in a review of "The Genoa Ferry," in The New York Times Book Review, November 20, 1977, p. 36.