A genuine classic

If you want to experience the feel of the Continent in the 1930s, you will find few better guides

A sly variation on the traditional English country-house murder mystery

An uncommonly good story of international intrigue

Unquestionably our best thriller writer

The source on which we all draw

Whether you are an aficionado of fin-de-siècle Europe, compelling crime fiction or strong characterisation, Darkness Rising delivers healthy doses of all three

a thoroughly compelling piece of work

outstanding

A most enjoyable read and, as usual, Vienna sparkles with atmosphere

Don Winslow is the kind of cult writer who is so good you almost want to keep him to yourself

A fiction whose effect on the reader is almost as addictive as the slimming sweets on which Eugene becomes so disturbingly dependent

Ruth Rendell's sense of place and disdain for her characters elevates a sordid case of arson into an artful exploration of sinister self-delusion

She has made the city her own, and writes with both knowledge and compassion about its streets and buildings, its transport and its shops - and above all about its inhabitants ... As ever Rendell writes with wry and witty authority ... It's intelligent stuff, and very readable

Rendell is marvellous at psychological tension, and the suspicion that these ways will be sinister is what hooks the reader. Setting out her cast with conviction, she unrolls their lives at a stately, ominous pace

Psychologically acute and extremely disturbing, Ruth Rendell's work is outstanding

Rendell has a Dickensian empathy, informed by a prodigious love of London life. Her account, bursting with colour and vitality, is a treat to read