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Need To Know
Need To Know
Apr 28, 2025 12:14 PM

Author:Karen Cleveland

Need To Know

Married for ten years. Four children. She thought she knew her husband better than anyone.

She was wrong.

‘Heart-poundingly suspenseful and heart-wrenchingly insightful’ J.P.Delaney, author of The Girl Before

‘This compulsive, clever thriller will have you reading long into the night’ Red

****

You get to work. Make a coffee. Turn on your computer.

Your task: break into a Russian criminal's laptop and find proof that he's concealing five deep-cover agents - seemingly normal people living in plain sight.

You’re in. Five faces stare back at you.

One of them is your husband.

****

‘An immensely satisfying story with serpentine twists and turns’ Daily Mail

Reviews

I raced through this gripping tale of domesticity and deceit. Cleveland deliciously ratchets up the tension at every turn . . . you won't be able to put it down until the final, stunning page!

—— SHARI LAPENA, author of THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR

Heart-poundingly suspenseful and heart-wrenchingly insightful, NEED TO KNOW hums with authentic detail, crisp storytelling, and characters that will long stay in your thoughts.

—— J. P. DELANEY, author of THE GIRL BEFORE

This compulsive, clever thriller will have you reading long into the night.

—— Red

If you liked THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR, try NEED TO KNOW by Karen Cleveland . . . Thrillers don't get much more twisty and turny than this one. If you don't mind staying up reading til 3am, this is the one for you.

—— BBC Arts and Entertainment, 'Books To Look Out For in 2018'

Impressively compelling . . . this is probably the banker among the New Year crop thanks to its sheer page-turning readability.

—— John Williams, Mail on Sunday

The heart-stopping plot barely lets up pace throughout this brilliant novel.

—— Heat

You'll devour this terrific debut like the rest of us, skipping lunch, losing sleep, turning pages until the end, where we're all left waiting for more.

—— JOHN GRISHAM

Karen Cleveland is the real deal - an exciting new voice in thrillers.

—— PATRICIA CORNWELL

Prediction: if you read chapter one, you'll read chapter two. If you read chapter two, you'll miss dinner, stay up far too late, and feel tired at work tomorrow. This is that kind of book. Superb.

—— LEE CHILD

Remarkable

—— Sunday Times Magazine - Thriller of the Month

An immensely satisfying story with serpentine twists and turns . . . ingenious and compelling.

—— Daily Mail

Breathless, complex, and seriously hardcore - don't plan to sleep tonight.

—— Lee Child

Taut, tough and visceral - and, most of all, written with a breath-taking authenticity'

—— RAYMOND KHOURY, Bestselling author of The Last Templar

A natural-born writer...strong, lucid, non-stop suspense

—— Ted Bell, New York Times Bestselling Author of Overkill

A wonderfully crafted story of action, history, and secrets that is as imaginative as it is compelling

—— Steve Berry

A brilliant debut thriller. He knows how to hook a reader and keep them hoovering up pages

—— Nudge

An enchanting mix of mystery and folklore.

—— Good Housekeeping

This pungently atmospheric, quietly smoldering thriller sensitively mixes superstition, oral storytelling and the emerging psychology movement of the 19th century.

—— Metro

Once Upon A River succeeds in doing what you hope every book will do - pull you in from the first page, hold you captive in the middle, then leave you satisfied and thoughtful at the end. I loved it.

—— Renee Knight, author of Disclaimer

This enchanting historical story is full of folklore and intrigue.

—— Prima

Though Setterfield writes emotions with marvellous truth and subtlety, her most stunning prose is reserved for evocative descriptions of the natural world, creating an immersive experience made of light, texture, scent and sensation.

—— Washington Post

Like Setterfield’s earlier novel The Thirteenth Tale, Once Upon a River is very much a story about the spellbinding power of storytelling...a deeply satisfying read.

—— New York Journal of Books

As the story progresses - by turns slow and melancholy, fast and furious, like its river setting - Diane Setterfield dips beguilingly into the intertwined lives of her vibrant characters.

—— Sunday Express

This dense, absorbing, beautifully atmospheric novel weaves a truly hypnotic spell.

—— Heat

Setterfield is a master of the medium. Like the river at its core, her plot twists and turns with ease and confidence, and her writing is beautiful.

—— Spectator

Setterfield brilliantly captures a time and place on the cusp of modernity, plays bleakness and warmth off against each other to create a life-affirming tale of what it means to be human.

—— Press Association

An exquisitely crafted multi layered mystery.

—— The Week

Once Upon a River is one of the most pleasurable and satisfying new books I've read in a long time. Setterfield is a master storyteller, her language flowing with a dark magic very like the river at the heart of her tale: swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful. Give yourself a treat and read it!

—— Madeline Miller,Orange Prize-winning author of The Song of Achilles and Circe

Once Upon a River is a delight, just marvellous. I devoured it in gulps.

—— Jo Baker, bestselling author of Longbourn

Once Upon A River succeeds in doing what you hope every book will do - pull you in from the first page, hold you captive in the middle, then leave you satisfied and thoughtful at the end. I loved it.

—— Renee Knight, author of bestseller Disclaimer
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