One of the most ingenious crime writers around. Highly recommended

Mankell is in the first division of crime writing

Not only an intriguing puzzle, but a moving description of a man trying to keep faith with a dead friend... This is the best aspect of crime fiction: a gripping plot plus the exploration of character and relationships that reverberate around murder

So compelling that, at the end of the sleepless night it took to read, I blearily reached for a keyboard to search for Mankell's other titles

Mankell's long, subtle, involving novel could turn you to crime

With meticulous attention to historical details... the author lovingly recreates medieval Edinburgh

Every once in a while a writer comes along and fundamentally changes the way people read. He or she is so bright, so innovative, so industrious that what they envision and create becomes the measure by which all others are judged. In 1993 one such writer - James Patterson - began to do just that ... James Patterson is the gold standard by which all others are judged

[Alex Cross] has become one of the greatest fictional detectives of all time, a character for the ages.

Alex Cross is a legend.

Patterson boils a scene down to the single, telling detail, the element that defines a character or moves a plot along. It's what fires off the movie projector in the reader's mind.

Patterson knows where our deepest fears are buried... there's no stopping his imagination.

Patterson is in a class by himself.

[Patterson's] books don't pussyfoot around when it comes to the villains. These are bad, bad people ... with a lot of intrigue in high places.