Marks a real departure for Lee Child, who homes in on two hot issues (US military veterans with mental or physical scars, and a related social plague currently in the news) ...Alongside this topicality is a poignancy that was lacking in earlier books.

Each year Lee Child comes up with another Reacher. Each year I lap it up. Love it...Best one for a while...there is something subversive as well as page-turning...The sentences are short, but that doesn't mean the thinking is small....I don't know another author so skilled at making me turn the page, at putting me in the thick of it all.

I just read the new Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child….It is as good as they always are. I read every single one.

Addictive...Child's trademark staccato-style delivers all-action excitement as well as a sombre message about the hypocrisy of the US war on drugs.

An eccentric but winning blend of the serious and the playful, this modern western resembles a collaboration between the Coen brothers and Karl Ove Knausgaard.

The one that breaks your heart...Reacher has a reputation to live up to: drifter, loner, knuckles the size of walnuts, etc...[ yet has] more emotional heft than anything Child has written before.

A timely, affecting, suspenseful and morally complex thriller. In fact, it’s one of the best thrillers I’ve read this year.

Lee Child is showing no sign of flagging with this latest outing....You'll read this one in a single evening.

A contemporary version of the knight in shining armour: to Lee Child's many readers, Reacher is a mythic figure.

Lee Child is the master of plotting...full of action and adventure.. This is Child's most emotional book to date. There are issues concerning family loyalty,wounded veterans, disfigurement, the opioid explosion, and the habits of drug dealers...This is not just a good story; it is a story with a purpose and a message.

Sirens is a powerhouse of noir. Joseph Knox owns Manchester and paints it in all its grimy colours.

Manchester throbs with lowlife in this startling debut . . . a page-turner with a beating heart. I loved it.

Waits’ first fictional outing is a shadowy, disturbing narrative and once you start reading it’s hard to resist the call. Sirens is the best British crime debut of the last five years.

A fierce, assured and utterly compelling debut . . . A Ross MacDonald for the 21st century.

Great read. A powerful piece of Manchester noir, brutal, poignant and dark as tar.

Fresh and darkly stylish, Sirens is a striking debut that marks the arrival of a major new crime writing talent.

Sirens immediately feels like a classic, not a debut . . . a book for every crime fan.

An amazing thriller. Sexy, stylish suspense.

A dark, dangerous noir, Sirens will be one of 2017’s smash hit debuts.

Deliciously wicked

Nesbø clearly had fun…it feels as if Shakespeare has been bent to Nesbø’s will. Refeshing’

This medieval whodunnit evokes the rural past with skill . . . shares common ground with Sarah Perry's The Essex Serpent and Andrew Michal Hurley's The Loney.

A peek behind the respectable curtain of village life, narrated by someone who has seen more than most… Reve’s voice develops into one of freshness and restrained lyricism.

A consistently interesting contemporary voice.

Samantha Harvey's fourth novel is set in the 1400s but feels vivid and intimate.

In the end, the questions of faith and the purpose of humanity raised in this bold, impressive and lustrously written reimagining of a past world are as important as the solving of the crime.

Harvey's luminous prose, tight plotting and rich characterisation make this a riveting read.

Ingenious… Harvey has captured an unconsciously sophisticated, morally muddled, truly good and truly interesting protagonist.

A visceral sense of the smell and look of the medieval world has knowing echoes of Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Eco would also have admired the playfulness of the book’s shape… And Agatha Christie would recognise the cleverness of the reveal.

Harvey’s imagination, and her empathy for medieval Oakham, make this a convincing tale... [The Western Wind] beguile[s] the reader with numerous twists and turns.

Samantha Harvey ingeniously builds a marvelously convincing medieval world out of modern language.

The Western Wind is an unexpected but triumphant foray into historical fiction… it is both an unconventional murder mystery and an unforgettable re-creation of 15th-century rural life.

[The Western Wind is] worth returning to... it's terrific. It's formally interesting, it's got a heart, it's well put together, it's great.

This is the novel of recent years that I have most frequently pressed on people; it is magnificent… It’s a cunning mystery – who is responsible for the death of the village’s benefactor? – and a profound exploration of faith, guilt and social cohesion. What elevates it is the quality of Harvey’s attention to the minuscule kinks and reflexes of human behaviour.

Ragnar Jónasson writes with a chilling, poetic beauty - a must-read addition to the growing canon of Iceland Noir

His clues are traditional and beautifully finessed - and he keeps you turning the pages

Distinctive blend of Nordic noir and golden age detective fiction...atmospheric...economical and evocative prose

Seductive ... an old-fashioned murder mystery with a strong central character and the fascinating background of a small Icelandic town cut off by snow. Ragnar does claustrophobia beautifully

The ending hits the reader like a kick in the stomach

Jonasson's books have breathed new life into Nordic noir ...all the skilful plotting of an old-fashioned whodunit although it feels bitingly contemporary in setting and tone

The threads lie in various places, the plot is well woven and the pieces in the puzzle come together well in the end. The structure is good, the main characters are believable, the story flows well, everyone is a suspect á la Agatha Christie and the solution unveils the mystery and leads the readers to the truth. But not all the truth, as some things are better left hidden

Hulda Hermannsdottir is a welcome addition to the selection of Icelandic crime fiction protagonists . . . It is almost impossible to put the book down until the last word has been read

Out of all of Ragnar's books, this is the one I like the most . . . The book of his which reminds me most of Agatha Christie

A very good book, gripping and interesting, with all the threads carefully managed. Hopefully the author will publish as many books as possible with lead character Hulda

Praise for Ragnar Jónasson

No country associated with the label Nordic noir is as bleak, cold, snowy and empty as Iceland. And no crime writer portrays those elements as evocatively and scarily as Ragnar Jonasson

A classic crime story seen through a uniquely Icelandic lens... first rate and highly recommended

A modern take on Agatha Christie-­-style mystery, as twisty as any slalom . . .

Ragnar Jónasson writes with a chilling, poetic beauty - a must-read addition to the growing canon of Iceland Noir

Distinctive blend of Nordic noir and golden age detective fiction...atmospheric...economical and evocative prose

Seductive ... an old-fashioned murder mystery with a strong central character and the fascinating background of a small Icelandic town cut off by snow. Ragnar does claustrophobia beautifully

The ending hits the reader like a kick in the stomach

Jonasson's books have breathed new life into Nordic noir ...all the skilful plotting of an old-fashioned whodunit although it feels bitingly contemporary in setting and tone

Hulda Hermannsdottir is a welcome addition to the selection of Icelandic crime fiction protagonists . . . It is almost impossible to put the book down until the last word has been read

Out of all of Ragnar's books, this is the one I like the most . . . The book of his which reminds me most of Agatha Christie

The threads lie in various places, the plot is well woven and the pieces in the puzzle come together well in the end. The structure is good, the main characters are believable, the story flows well, everyone is a suspect á la Agatha Christie and the solution unveils the mystery and leads the readers to the truth. But not all the truth, as some things are better left hidden

A very good book, gripping and interesting, with all the threads carefully managed. Hopefully the author will publish as many books as possible with lead character Hulda