A meditation on thought and consciousness, identity and disguise, the gloriously rolling sentences offer the deep pleasures of a brilliant mind apprehending the world in real time

This is a spy thriller, but it reads like one transposed into music . . . Marías mesmerises us again and we are swept on by the long, powerful swells of his prose

The last word from a master . . . His writing is often thrilling in a way that's distinct from any other author I know . . . once you've been inside Marías' world, to spend too long outside is unbearable

How we will miss the late Javier Marías and his unique genre of slow-motion page-turners, blending thrillery plots with long, equivocating sentences . . . [Tomás Nevinson] is full of the complexities, comedy and most of all contradictions that define his work

A writer who loves the propulsiveness of the thriller, the page-turning compulsion that drives a reader through Eric Ambler or John le Carré

Mariás demonstrates why so many of his peers believe him to be among the greatest of contemporary novelists

The most subtle and gifted writer in contemporary Spanish literature

A Marías sentence is a place of infinite richness and surprises

A Spanish literary great . . . His writing is fine and subtle

Javier Marías's writing doesn't resemble anyone else's. It's easy to parody, but impossible to imitate . . . Javier Marias was the best writer in Spain

Marías occupied a reputational perch in Spanish culture that would be almost inconceivable for an American author . . . Most considered him the greatest living Spanish writer

Javier Marias’s farewell novel sees the late Spanish spellbinder leave us in a droll, delicious, thrillerish labyrinth

You can’t go wrong with Harlan Coben. If you’re after the kind of thriller that has you taking the phone off the hook… and staying up past any reasonable hour in order to keep turning the pages, then he’s your man

Harlan’s plots never drop below breakneck speed … By the end my head was spinning, but it’s expertly done, a visual tale that will surely be on screen one day. For now, it’s a perfect page-turner

North's latest thriller does not disappoint, weaving an intriguing cast of characters across multiple time periods into a story rich with layers and plot twists and perfectly suspenseful pacing ... A delightfully bone-chilling tale

Praise for Alex North

As terrifying as a great horror novel, as unpredictable as the best type of crime novel and above all beautifully written...a writer who is an absolute master of his craft

This is absorbing, headlong reading, a play on classic horror with an inventiveness of its own

Hugely atmospheric and deliciously creepy