[William Mayne] is becoming the John Creasey of children's fiction…. [The Incline is] his best book in several years. Unfortunately, because it's all very English in its understated, clever dialogue and portrayal of a Yorkshire town at the turn of the century, with all its subtle class antagonisms, I suspect American children are likely to put it down in bewilderment, for all its virtues. In his resolute strangeness and obsession with certain themes, Mayne, like Ivan Southall, is much like a writer of adult fiction who works out of his private vision rather than a purveyor of made-to-order tales. (p. 8)

Michele Murray, in Book World—The Washington Post, Part II (© 1972—The Washington Post Company), November 5, 1972.