A beautiful double-take plot. And characters seen with compassion. Her best yet!

The best mystery writer anywhere in the English-speaking world

She can make a scene between two women sitting in a café as violent as anything you’ve seen between a couple of guys with baseball bats

Rendell is unrivalled at depicting psychologically warped people and at creating unease through the simplest things. This is another triumph

There are quite a few Ruth Rendells: the doyenne of the traditional English detective novel; the queen of the psychological thriller; the celebrated author of the literary thriller

Absorbing and also timely

Iain Pears has an uncanny historical sense ... splendid return to the grand 19th-century novel

Fireworks, inventiveness and excitement of part three and a curmudgeonly inventor of torpedoes

An indefatigably clever storyteller...witty, laconic dialogue; a galloping pace, particularly in the first and third narratives; the author's silky, fluid prose; and above all the concluding passages, which detonate a series of surprises as poignant as they are grim

A complex novel of mystery and suspense narrated by three fascinating characters...I thoroughly recommend this title

Well worth the ride

Pears is in a class of his own; no one else could possibly succeed in making the world of big finance so hugely entertaining.

this thoughtful, thoroughly satisfying novel... clever storytelling to reach imaginative heights