[A Herd of Deer] is Eilís Dillon at her best. The story … is full of excitement and tension. The writing is atmospheric and the description poetic in its feeling for the Irish countryside. But it is the sympathetic insight into the Irish character that marks the book as outstanding. Miss Dillon brilliantly conveys the men who are a mass of superstitions and contradictions; passionate in their hatreds and ready to do violence one minute, yet won over to friendship the next, for no better reason than that is how the feeling takes them. This is for teenagers or younger readers who can appreciate a mature talent in storytelling.