A mixture of The Lovely Bones and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A passionately angry ... and shocking book. Cara Hoffman not only discovers the heart of darkness in small town Haeden, but brilliantly dissects it.

Beautiful ... what begins as the suspenseful story of a rural American murder grows into a dark, disquieting and urgently fascinating examination of the violence and concealment practised by a whole society ... this is an impassioned, intelligent and important work of art.

Intelligent and gripping stuff

Dark, atmospheric tale of murder in a small-town world.

A dark but powerful debut novel ... Hoffman maps the atmosphere of paranoia that descends on the formerly tranquil town as she moves deftly between its inhabitants.

A skillful, psychologically acute tale of how violence affects a small town

[A] fearless first novel

This female-centric thriller gets to grips with financial and familial intrigue: a stylish debut

Fast-paced thriller

Truly deserves the description "a real page-turner"

A deservedly acclaimed read.

A fascinating, funny and memorable read

The clash between Christopher's view of the world and the way it looks to the rest of us makes this an extraordinarily moving, often blackly funny read. It is hard to think of anyone who would not be moved and delighted by this book, so the decision to publish it simultaneously for older children and adults is certainly well-founded

A wonderful first person narrative of a boy with Asperger's Syndrome; funny, sad and extraordinarily original

I'm all for hearing different voices in fiction and I got my wish with this book. The story showed just how someone with Asperger's might view the world. Christopher finds a dead dog and sets about trying to find the dog's killer, but the book is much more than a mystery story... I loved the way Christopher tries to bring order to his world by using Maths which he finds far easier to understand than people

So genuine...It is chillingly heartbreaking and passionately positive in equal measure

So what makes these different to any other set of classics? In a moment of inspiration Random House had the bright idea of actually asking Key stage 2 children what extra ingredients they could add to make children want to read. And does it work? Well, put it this way...my 13-year-old daughter announced that she had to read a book over the summer holiday and, without any prompting, spotted The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas...and proceeded to read it! Now, if you knew my 13-year-old daughter, you would realise that this is quite remarkable. She reads texts, blogs and tags by the thousand - but this is the first book she has read since going to high school, so all hail Vintage Classics!