Thomas's skill in yoking unlikely elements together is little short of hilarious. Dialogue skips along, people are roundly sketched, places set a vivid mood. Thomas... midway between Archer and Amis, keeps on giving fiction a good name

Recomended to anyone who enjoys a good detective yarn with plenty of laughs

Lose yourself in Jackson's atmospheric writing as he introduces us to his intriguing Victorian heroine, Sarah Tanner. Jackson is a writer who not only knows his history but who knows how to tell a truly engrossing tale.

He writes with a light touch that makes his darker final chapters all the more disturbing

The seventh novel in the best-selling Jack Reacher series. PERSUADER is another gripping thriller

Jack Reacher is a seriously tough but unbendingly moral loner, a taciturn modern-day Galahad who attracts violence like a magnet ... violent and exciting

Child has a razor-sharp style and crafted seven perfect thrillers ... Think Die Hard without the smirk

Reacher has no doubts about his objective: to rid the world of the bad guys. And nobody does it better

Captivating...this excellent adventure delivers high drama.

Mesmerizing...A colourful cast of characters, both good and evil, enhance a tale that will keep readers on edge until the final page.

This is history as it ought to have been.

Against the well-researched background of intrigue and rebellion we are plunged into the uncertain 12th century, in this accomplished and engrossing historical mystery.

The deserved winner of this year's Ellis Peters Historical Dagger is a cunningly plotted tale set in medieval Cambridge. A serial killer is at large, and the Jews are blamed. Henry I offers protection because he needs the money. He sends a medical examiner - a master of the art of death - to find the killer. Great stuff

Gruesome and compelling

Norwegian star Jo Nesbo has obliterated most of his Scandinavian rivals in the bestseller stakes, with The Leopard published in paperback this week... The uncrowned king of Norwegian crime fiction is Jo Nesbo. Books such as The Redbreast (2000) and his imposing novel The Snowman have propelled Nesbo to the heights. Apart from its narrative finesse, his work also provides a coolly objective guide to fluctuations in Norwegian society. There is also a universal feeling that his work is more strikingly individual than that of most of his Scandinavian colleagues... Harry is a lone wolf, a chronic alcoholic separated from his wife and child but in touch with the zeitgeist of his country. And Nesbo gives us a sharp picture of Norwegian society in flux, crammed with relevant detail - as you might expect from an ex-freelance journalist, particularly where the role of the media is described

Nesbo has a skill for dispatching his victims with increasing inventiveness, and he barely lets you draw breath before delivering a virtuoso torture and death scene in the opening chapter

The plot is intriguing, and Nesbo's writing is as taught as ever

It's fascinating to discover, from the incident details, what it is like to live for much of the time in a world under snow... Nesbo writes beautifully

There are passages [which are] so anatomically gruesome...that they can only be properly read through the gaps between protecting fingers

Norwegian star Jo Nesbo has obliterated most of his Scandinavian rivals in the bestseller stakes, with The Leopard published in paperback this week...The uncrowned king of Norwegian crime fiction is Jo Nesbo. Books such as The Redbreast (2000) and his imposing novel The Snowman have propelled Nesbo to the heights. Apart from its narrative finesse, his work also provides a coolly objective guide to fluctuations in Norwegian society. There is also a universal feeling that his work is more strikingly individual than that of most of his Scandinavian colleagues...Harry is a lone wolf, a chronic alcoholic separated from his wife and child but in touch with the zeitgeist of his country. And Nesbo gives us a sharp picture of Norwegian society in flux, crammed with relevant detail - as you might expect from an ex - freelance journalist, particularly where the role of the media is described