Delicate and cunning . . . Modiano's method is to sidle up to subjects of mystery and horror, indicating them without broaching them, as if gingerly fingering the outside of a poison bottle. . . He opens dark doors into the past out of a sunlit present.

Modiano is a pure original

Delivers what it promises

Nobody does it better... nobody!

Deft, tense, serpentine and completely gripping.

Another deeply satisfying read from Emma Curtis. Intense atmosphere, beautifully crafted characters. I couldn't put it down.

Sometimes, it's the not knowing which is the scariest thing of all. Emma Curtis's new book does uncertainty to perfection!

The Night You Left is an excellent premise and Emma truly delivers with a complex, clever storyline told with real heart. I loved it from start to finish.

A compelling read with deftly handled twists to the very end.

A truly fantastic psychological suspense novel - intriguing and immersive, with exceptional characters, it kept me gripped until the final page.

Suspenseful from the first page to the last, this was a perfect edge-of-your-seat thriller. Compelling writing, believable characters and enough tension to steal your breath - Emma Curtis has delivered it all.

I loved The Night You Left - I couldn't stop reading, kept bumping into the furniture!

Tense, gripping and filled with twists and turns. Another excellent thriller from Emma Curtis that will keep you hooked right to the very end.

Conjures an atmosphere of quiet menace.

An intriguing and thought-provoking character-driven mystery.

Kept me gripped with every page and ended with a satisfying, didn't-guess-it twist . . . An excellent thriller with tasty red herrings galore.

Although, at the outset, the plot feels quite Orwellian, Ogawa employs a quiet, poetic prose to capture the diverse (and often unexpected) emotions of the people left behind

Ogawa’s anointed translator, Snyder, adroitly captures the quiet control with which Ogawa gently unfurls her ominously surreal and Orwellian narrative. The Memory Police loom, their brutality multiplies, but Ogawa remarkably ensures that what lingers are the human(e) connections... As the visceral disappears, somehow the spirit holds on.

First it’s small things — bells, ribbons, stamps — that disappear from the cloistered Japanese island where an unnamed novelist toils over her next book and worries about her community’s increasing isolation. With the objects go the memory of them: “It doesn’t hurt,” the protagonist’s mother explains to her, “and you won’t even be particularly sad.” Eventually, the “disappeared” things — paper, springtime — grow in scale and value, and the narrator struggles to avoid the clutches of the titular Memory Police. An unfortunately zeitgeisty novel about censorship, oppression, and the gradual compression of experience under autocratic regimes, this is a deeply traumatizing novel in the best way possible.

The translation of this masterpiece by the acclaimed Japanese author into English this year is cause for celebration

Terrifying, surreal and profoundly moving

One of Japan's finest writers serves up a riveting slice of dystopian suspense, which is far more pertinent and reflective of modern society than one would like. A troubling examination of state surveillance and control.

Elegant, haunting

This beautiful and simple novel explores the power of memory and its importance to the soul

Strange and affectingly beautiful

Bestselling author Lisa Jewell’s twisty psychological thriller unravels the tale of two complicated families, unlocking a mystery that keeps the reader captivated until the final page.

Yet another brilliant novel... Lisa Jewell is the new Ruth Rendell or Barbara Vine. Just mesmerising.

It’s SO GOOD!

The excitement, the intrigue, the sheer pleasure of reading taboo-breaking work!

It’s absolutely bloody brilliant and I can’t tell you much I wish I’d written it.

From a stack of amazing crime novels in 2019, I have to choose The Family Upstairs…Jewell is brilliant at twisting plot strands from the past and present into a tense story that I read in one sitting. I'm still thinking about the ending!

Super-readable with twisty turns, this is a stay-up-to-finish-in-the-early-hours read.

Just finished The Family Upstairs and I’m telling you it’s her best book yet – human, gripping, deeply felt, seriously twisty and skilfully plotted. Bravo!

I had hoped to save The Family Upstairs for my holiday, but failed miserably by devouring it as soon as it arrived. I was hooked from the first page, I think it's her best yet and hands down my favourite book so far this year.

What. A. Book! 2019’s best thriller and a one-sitting read.

Brilliantly dark and unsettling, Lisa Jewell’s latest novel might just be her best yet.

A work of utter genius ... you’re going to love it.

Lisa Jewell is the most wonderful writer, and funnily enough we've written about a similar theme with our new books - cults, in microcosm and macrocosm. I can't rant enough about how brilliant The Family Upstairs is.

I absolutely loved The Family Upstairs. Intriguing, absorbing, unputdownable with characters so real they jump from the page.

Couldn’t put it down. Wish I’d written it. With characters that light up the pages, a twisty plot which unravels at perfect pace, and a house rammed with the darkest secrets, it’s brilliant.

Brilliantly dark and disturbing ... Absolutely couldn’t put it down, it’s so good!

‘Outstanding. So compelling, twisty-turny and riveting. I just couldn’t stop reading.’

All I want to do for the rest of the day is find out what’s at the bottom of it all. Too good.

Utterly compelling. Deliciously dark and twisty with characters who live on in your head. Lisa Jewell just keeps getting better and better.

Compelling and suspenseful for a long and chilly autumn night’s reading.

A gripping psychological thriller.

This is without a doubt one of my favourite reads of the year.

Featuring two entangled families and a house with the darkest of secrets, this is a compulsive new thriller from Lisa Jewell.

From the first page we were hooked. If you’ve got a lazy day planned over the Christmas break, this is the type of novel you could read in a day…It makes us shiver just sharing the plot and we guarantee you’ll be on the edge of your seats throughout.

Of the crop of great thrillers out this year, this is my pick [...] Lisa Jewell is brilliant at creating a menacing atmosphereand this is almost unbearably tense at times, with a knock-the-wind-out-of-you ending.

An enthralling tale rich in psychological suspense that mixes family saga with domestic noir.

Part family saga and part-psychological thriller, this is an exceptional read.

Breathtaking thriller

Perfect book to inhale by the fire. Had no idea how creepy and nuanced it would be but couldn’t put it down and stayed up half the night reading it. Highly recommend.