Donna Leon’s deft and descriptive words do for Venice what Canaletto did for this serenest of cities with his brushes and paint palette and bring it to life in all its reach and colourful gaiety…[An] intriguing tense thriller. The ending is to die for.

This is Leon at her best … Her writing is as ever subtle and elliptical and conversations and people always have multiple layers which often only reveal themselves on second reading … This is a compelling read and kept me up long past my usual bed time as I just had to finish it to find out what happened. The nail biting finale was well worth staying up for.

The star of the story is Venice itself and Donna Leon, who has lived there for thirty years, brings the city to life . . . I read the book in two sittings . . . glued to the page as the tension ramped up - and everything came to a very satisfying finale.

The author provides us once again with an entertaining mystery and an opportunity to catch up with the estimable Guido Brunetti. Leon never disappoints.

As always, a gentle and intriguing look at life in Venice, the vagaries of the police force, and a sharp and clever investigation from Brunetti mixed in a delightful way, is at the heart of this novel. Another enjoyable outing for this complex, intelligent detective.

It’s always a pleasure to read a Brunetti novel; doubly so in this case.

In Even the Dead, Black goes beyond the atmospheric stage and scene setting, delving deeper than in any previous novel into the soul of his pathologist hero Quirke, an enigmatic loner whose voice colours every page as if staining it with nicotine

Step through The Gates of Evangeline with Charlotte Cates, a grief-stricken Northerner tasked with uncovering a Southern dynasty's dark secrets. Hair-raising and heart-rending, Hester Young's first novel is one of buried shame, children taken too soon, and, ultimately, of immense true love that binds across the mortal divide.

The hothouse atmosphere of Evangeline and the tortuous and tangled motives of its denizens make for an enjoyable puzzle box of a mystery. An eerie but inviting debut.

In Hester Young's haunted Louisiana, the ghostly labyrinth of the past opens its great doors to deliver up a lush gothic thriller. The Gates of Evangeline is a darkly marvelous debut, a classic whodunnit stitched with otherworldly chills.

A grieving mother but a determined journalist. What a box of mysteries this story is. Life, death, heartache and hope for the future. I loved it. Very much a book you don’t want to put down. A fabulous first novel. I hope this is the first of many, particularly if ‘Charlie Cates’ is involved.

Young’s The Gates of Evangeline is a stunning debut novel. A lyrical, haunting, heart-wrenching work of suspense with echoes of du Maurier, Hitchcock, and King.

Haunting, heartbreaking, yet ultimately hopeful...Young handles the spectral elements with restraint as her tremendously sympathetic heroine seeks to build a new life after death.

A dreamy, Southern gothic mystery…Young’s novel is powerful and captivating.

A dangerously good thriller

This thriller gets under your skin and won't let you go. One thing is very clear at the end: we want to read more about Holger Munch and Mia Krüger!

A very sophisticated and terrifying thriller, which keeps the reader guessing and gasping to the very last page. The story is powerful, the style is fluent, and the cast of characters is simply irresistible