Mo Hayder has a profound ability to shock and surprise her readers, and Pig Island surpasses anything she has written before. She's the bravest writer I know

Mo Hayder is the closest thing we've got to Stephen King, which is close enough...the goriest thriller writer this side of the pond

She has created the most warped and bloodthirsty visions of psychopathic behaviour. No matter how much you might despise yourself for getting sucked into such places, she is brilliant at making you read on

Hayder’s writing is, as ever, briskly paced and fluid

Hayder has always had the unrivalled ability to conjure up grotesqueries that chill, but here she outdoes herself

[Wexford] has become an old friend who gets better with age.

It's not often you pick up a book where the plot is technically perfect, where the characters all come off the page perfectly formed and the writing is so good that it's impossible to spot an unnecessary word, but which still managed to be a damn good story. I was still reading at 2 o'clock this morning...

Psychologically acute and extremely disturbing, Ruth Rendell's work is outstanding.

Original, unsettling and atmospheric, this is a debut that hits the ground running

Thought-provoking and utterly original

Exceptional debut . . . A new UK crime writer to shout about

Blacklands heralds a fresh new voice in crime: Belinda Bauer inhabits the mind of her 12-year-old hero, struggling to tease the whereabouts of his uncle's body from an imprisoned child-killer, with uncanny conviction

A compelling story of a fragmented family and the loss of innocence

A tense, well-orchestrated crime novel with a refreshingly unusual premise

A chilling and gripping original thriller by a great new talent. You'll want to race through to the scary climax

Blacklands... managed to glean the best word-of-mouth for any new crime novel in years.

A gripping read

My big book discovery this time was The Snowman by Jo Nesbo - it's about a Norwegian detective who has to investigate a series of gruesome murders. What could be better for holiday entertainment

THE NEXT STIEG LARSSON

[A] dark, chilling, page-turner

'Civilised, funny, life-affirming and hugely enjoyable. I can't recall reading crime fiction quite like this before- honest, ironic, and cheerfully unselfconscious. I urge you to share my surprise and delight.'

One of the most brilliantly playful, witty and original writers we have.

'At heart a comic novelist, who explores the relationship between comedy and crime... In Case Histories, these skills have found their literary home.'

'Sharp humour, together with a number of unexpected twists, make this a typically pacey and intelligent read.'

Not just the best novel I have read this year...but the best mystery of the decade. There are actually four mysteries, nesting like Russian dolls, and when they begin to fit together, I defy any reader not to feel a combination of delight and amazement. Case Histories is the literary equivalent of a triple axel. I read it once for pleasure and then again just to see how it was done. This is the mind of book you shove in people's faces, saying 'You gotta read this!'