This is two for the price of one - the finely crafted thriller you'd expect from Mankell, and the powerful social comment you wouldn't

On one level, it is a mystery; but it is also an angry polemic on a subject that Mankell feels strongly about - the unnecessary suffering of AIDS victims in Africa

A journey into the darkest reaches of exploitation

Mankell is writing with his heart on his sleeve, and the subject matter is a worthy one

Inventive, funny and worryingly prophetic

Action-packed and authentic in every detail, it gives us a hero who's at least as scary as the villains. Andy McNab is the real deal and a rare commodity - a hard guy who knows how to write

With breathless speed, Unger is off on an action-packed journey of treachery and intrigue-and sex and romance. . . . Deep as well as clever, and Unger plays it out thrillingly

Unger effectively builds suspicions. . . . Cleverly handled suspense

Her engaging narrative wins us over

This mystery's surprising twists will make your jaw drop

Perfect pitch, characters we can recognize as versions of ourselves, a plot in which a vague sense of suspense almost instantly appears and then grows with the speed of a waterslide... lip-smacking good

Lisa Unger comes on strong... A tightly written thriller... Beautiful Lies maintains a high adrenaline level throughout as Jones draws ever closer to learning the dark secrets of her childhood and to discovering who is behind a scheme that changed her life. The book's characters are fully formed, and the action is depicted with satisfying breathlessness

Reacher fans will love it - it's all storming compounds, breaking hearts and not bothering to take names, taking justice into his own hands and to hell with the wos'name... a solid inter-Bond-film substitute