The most ingenious, inventive and exciting of our novelists... A master of storytelling

Graham Greene had wit and grace and character and story and a transcendent universal compassion that places him for all time in the ranks of world literature

A superb storyteller with a gift for provoking controversy

I read Brighton Rock when I was about thirteen. One of the first lessons I took from it was that a serious novel could be an exciting novel - that the novel of adventure could also be the novel of ideas

Vargas has as loving and sharp an eye for provincial French eccentrics as Simenon... Vargas is an addictive writer whose surreal touches create a curiously solid world

France's most acclaimed crime novelist... Her novels about the kindly, quixotic Commissaire Adamsberg are unique, presenting us with a France that resembles Simenon’s in its concreteness

Adamsberg [is] one of my favourite fictional detectives. Vargas is a wonderful writer, quirky, endearing and always surprising

Few contemporary crime thrillers can match Vargas's soaring imaginative flights

Vargas writes with strength, erudition and unique imagination… In the crowded world of crime fiction, she’s a valuable one-off

A master of her craft

Brilliant and so well-written

Fred Vargas is great

Wry humour and offbeat plots blend with a subtly dangerous charm to make Fred Vargas the queen of French crime writers

Readers hungry for an adventure that combines the depth and detail of a satisfying police procedural with a devilish mystery won’t rest till they find out. Vargas remains the gold standard in modern crime fiction

My Lovely Wife is dark, twisted-and impossible to put down. Samantha Downing has written a wickedly plotted and suspenseful psychological thriller

A fantastic foray into what we know-and what we do not-about those closest to us. Intricately plotted, fascinating characters - I loved it!

Domestic noir has rarely been darker . . . it's a psychological shocker

Utterly gripping . . . Expect more twists and turns than a bowl of spaghetti and block out a whole day to read this, because you won't want to sleep until you're done

This gripping page-turner offers a new take on the psychological thriller genre - the ideal beach read

A dark and clever debut thriller

Suspenseful, shocking thriller. Deliciously dark

Totally engrossing and I kept on thinking, one more chapter... an intelligent page-turner that makes you question everything

Truly horrifying in the most delicious way. Samantha Downing sucks you in with a great story, pitch-perfect prose and disturbingly dead-on insights into the dark side of human nature. I hope I never meet her in a dark alley....

I couldn't pull myself away from this story - a terrifying and riveting window into the mind of the perfect suburban mother with a taste for murder. Make sure you clear your schedule before you pick it up. Absolutely unputdownable

It's no mean feat to find something fresh in the crowded thriller field, but Downing pulls off an indisputable triumph with My Lovely Wife. Exemplary writing and outstanding pacing confirm Downing's talent, but it's her deliciously depraved characters that kept me flying through the pages. Couldn't get enough of this subversive love-gone-sideways tale!

Deliciously dark and twisted... It's a remarkable achievement, full stop.

Best new books to read this March

A highly original and dark look at the shifting power structure in a modern marriage. . . A funny, smart book

Darkly witty and strangely plausible, it's a read-in-one-sitting firecracker of a thriller, laced with explosive twists

A marital, psychological thriller with darkly comedic undertones

Bold and brilliant

This is a ringer of a yarn, shot through with enough tooth-clenching moments to make you have your dentist on speed dial

With a twisty plot that will leave you gasping, this deliciously dark thriller is on a par with Gone Girl

One of the best thrillers I've ever read

What. A. Book! 2019’s best thriller and a one-sitting read.

Brilliantly dark and unsettling, Lisa Jewell’s latest novel might just be her best yet.

A work of utter genius ... you’re going to love it.

Lisa Jewell is the most wonderful writer, and funnily enough we've written about a similar theme with our new books - cults, in microcosm and macrocosm. I can't rant enough about how brilliant The Family Upstairs is.

I absolutely loved The Family Upstairs. Intriguing, absorbing, unputdownable with characters so real they jump from the page.

Couldn’t put it down. Wish I’d written it. With characters that light up the pages, a twisty plot which unravels at perfect pace, and a house rammed with the darkest secrets, it’s brilliant.

Brilliantly dark and disturbing ... Absolutely couldn’t put it down, it’s so good!

‘Outstanding. So compelling, twisty-turny and riveting. I just couldn’t stop reading.’

All I want to do for the rest of the day is find out what’s at the bottom of it all. Too good.

Utterly compelling. Deliciously dark and twisty with characters who live on in your head. Lisa Jewell just keeps getting better and better.

Compelling and suspenseful for a long and chilly autumn night’s reading.

A gripping psychological thriller.

This is without a doubt one of my favourite reads of the year.

Featuring two entangled families and a house with the darkest of secrets, this is a compulsive new thriller from Lisa Jewell.

From the first page we were hooked. If you’ve got a lazy day planned over the Christmas break, this is the type of novel you could read in a day…It makes us shiver just sharing the plot and we guarantee you’ll be on the edge of your seats throughout.

Of the crop of great thrillers out this year, this is my pick [...] Lisa Jewell is brilliant at creating a menacing atmosphereand this is almost unbearably tense at times, with a knock-the-wind-out-of-you ending.

An enthralling tale rich in psychological suspense that mixes family saga with domestic noir.

Part family saga and part-psychological thriller, this is an exceptional read.

Breathtaking thriller

Perfect book to inhale by the fire. Had no idea how creepy and nuanced it would be but couldn’t put it down and stayed up half the night reading it. Highly recommend.