A fantastic tale of spies, deceit and murder in the Elizabethan age

Swanston clearly knows the period well and Radcliff is an engaging hero

Radcliff is a wonderful character, resourceful and intelligent . . . perfectly combines history and fiction . . . I loved every page

Beautifully done. All the sights, sounds and smells of Elizabethan England are there, along with an intriguing range of characters . . . Radcliff is clearly destined to appear in future books, and I think he's likely to gain some loyal fans

A colourful and gripping read . . . you can almost smell the filthy Tudor River Thames

Lawyer Christopher Radcliff is an erudite outsider with an unusual past, who turns state spy in this colourful and gripping historical novel.

Beautifully evokes the grimy and filthy streets of Elizabethan London and the plot canters along from the very first page . . . I cannot wait for the next one.

Historical fiction has never been hotter, and fans of S J Parris and Rory Clements will gulp it down in one.

I loved it . . . refreshing, engaging and never faltered from the first page to the last.

Really rich and beautifully written . . . if you’re a fan of Swanston’s other books, you’re going to absolutely love this.

It is two parts Donna Tartt, one part Daphne du Maurier. Ruskovich shares the former's unnerving knack for isolating her characters... and the latter's for psychological suspense and hauntings... bewitching and heady

Idaho is a world of vivid particularity, a collection of evanescent traces and tracks, stains and remnants

Astonishing... an exquisite examination of how the ripples from a single tragic event play out across a panoply of vividly drawn characters

Riveting… exquisitely rendered with masterful language and imagery. You leave Idaho feeling as though you have been given a rare glimpse into the souls of genuinely surprising and convincing people, as E.M. Forster would have characterized the inhabitants of this world. Idaho is a powerful and deeply moving book, an impressive debut that portends good, even great, things to come

One of the best books I've read this year... Emily Ruskovich's writing is remarkably beautiful; the descriptions of the mountain and the forest are breathtaking. And the fact that she doesn't provide clear answers, that everything is a little hazy, makes it exactly the kind of book I enjoy... The characters are complex and real, their motivations always understated... It is a wonderful book and I'll be recommending it to anyone who will listen

It’s the writing which is most striking, managing to be both spare and vibrant in what is essentially a dark novel... There’s no black and white here, no neat resolution: questions remain unanswered and it’s all the better for that

Emily Ruskovich can communicate a world in a sentence

Eerie story about what the heart is capable of fathoming and what the hand is capable of executing... mesmerizing

Haunting, propulsive and gorgeously written, this is a debut not to be missed

A dark and poignant debut

Fans of lush, psychological dramas like Top of the Lake or Broadchurch have their winter reading cut out for them. A provocative first novel filled to the brim with dazzling language, mystery, and a profound belief in the human capacity to love and seek forgiveness

Shocking and heartbreaking, Ruskovich has crafted a remarkable love story and a narrative that will stay with readers

With lovely language and piercing pathos, Idaho focuses on the power of love and the possibilities of forgiveness and memory. This debut novel deals blows as large as life

In Emily Ruskovich's wizardly vision, Idaho is both a place and an emotional dimension. Haunted, haunting, her novel winds through time, braiding events and their consequences in the most unexpected and moving ways

A novel written like music… a chorus of rich and beautiful voices woven deep in the Idaho woods, each trying to come to their own understanding of a terrible tragedy

Emily Ruskovich has written a poem in prose, a beautiful and intricate homage to place, and a celebration of the defeats and triumphs of love. Beautifully crafted, emotionally evocative, and psychologically astute, Idaho is one of the best books I have read in a long time

Exquisitely crafted

Idaho begins with a rusted truck and ends up places you couldn’t imagine. Its language is an enchantment, its vision brutal and sublime

Beautiful, brutal and incandescent

A strange, uncanny novel, bewitching and heady

Richly rendered characters, with a well-delineated supporting cast and a strong sense of place. A debut of astonishing maturity.

This beautifully written and poetic novel is fascinating and disturbing… This is a novel which stays in the mind.

A powerful debut novel.

I kept flipping back, over and over, rereading pages and saying ‘Oh my God’ to myself.

Mina’s recent novel The Long Drop…is her most interesting work

An atmospheric recreation of a vanished Glasgow…and a compelling exploration of the warped criminal mind. A Mina masterpiece

One of the most exciting writers to have emerged in Britain for years.

One of the most fiercely intelligent of crime writers