Geoffrey Archer has again used his ITN experience in a sinuous mix of international threats that are coming to have the same chill-factor as the fear that underpinned the best Cold War thrillers

A dark story of murder and obsession

An eerie murder mystery set in the corrupt heart of Victorian London

Part-bodice-ripper, part-slasher, the book's elaborate plot moves along at a brisk clip with a nod to the likes of Sarah Waters and Peter Ackroyd

A sure-footed evocation of seamy Victorian London

A sinister picture of a country, and protagonist, on the brink of hysteria

As crowded with sensation as a Victorian parlour with furniture

A spider's web of a plot and a spine-tingling atmosphere of menace and suspense

Mesmerising, elegant and compelling

Well-written, tense and with some very nasty images, this isn’t Niven’s first book…, but it is his first thriller, and…a good one.

Brilliantly written, Cold Hands is that rarest of things – a gripping thriller with real depth. An intense, exhilarating adrenaline rush, I found myself staying up all night to finish it in one sitting. Wonderful.

Gripping and disturbing

The story-telling is little short of brilliant

Perfect plotting, great characterisation, and the kind of payoff that a thriller of this calibre deserves

So many twists and surprises

I'm all for hearing different voices in fiction and I got my wish with this book. The story showed just how someone with Asperger's might view the world. Christopher finds a dead dog and sets about trying to find the dog's killer, but the book is much more than a mystery story... I loved the way Christopher tries to bring order to his world by using Maths which he finds far easier to understand than people

So genuine...It is chillingly heartbreaking and passionately positive in equal measure

So what makes these different to any other set of classics? In a moment of inspiration Random House had the bright idea of actually asking Key stage 2 children what extra ingredients they could add to make children want to read. And does it work? Well, put it this way...my 13-year-old daughter announced that she had to read a book over the summer holiday and, without any prompting, spotted The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas...and proceeded to read it! Now, if you knew my 13-year-old daughter, you would realise that this is quite remarkable. She reads texts, blogs and tags by the thousand - but this is the first book she has read since going to high school, so all hail Vintage Classics!