In the best tradition of C. J. Sansom's Shardlake mysteries, Nick Drake has woven a bright, luminous tapestry. This is brilliant, make sure you read every line.

Drake uses both the dazzling light of the desert and concealing darkness of night to disturbing effect in his gripping narrative...He cleverly evokes an ancient civilisation that fascinates because of its innate differences and similarities to our own...Rahotep, like CJ Sansom's Shardlake, is a detective at the very heart of his historical era

Using modern research, Nick Drake has painted an authentic picture of a lost civilisation, and brings alive the ill-fated boy-king who still fascinates to this day

[Reacher] has long since gained mythical status...storytelling of the highest order: lean, laconic, laced with tension

Reacher is one of those characters who is admired by his male readers and lusted after by his female ones in equal measure . . . Child's tough-as-nails protagonist has become one of the most appealing of contemporary heroes

One of the truly memorable tough-guy heroes in recent fiction

Forget the A-team. If you're in a fix, and you want help, you need Jack Reacher....the twists come thick and fast, the false trails are cleverly laid and the surprise developments are genuinely unexpected...Child, as always, delivers

Perhaps there are action-lit writers more recognizable than Child, but the bet is that none of them will turn in a tighter-plotted, richer-peopled, faster-paced page-turner this year

As always, the action is intense, the pace unrelenting, and the violence unforgiving. Child remains the reigning master at combining breakneck yet brilliantly constructed plotting with characters who continually surprise us with their depth

It's his hero, hyper-tough ex-US army special investigator Jack
Reacher, who keeps me coming back for more...never a dull moment

This is history as it ought to have been.

Against the well-researched background of intrigue and rebellion we are plunged into the uncertain 12th century, in this accomplished and engrossing historical mystery.

The deserved winner of this year's Ellis Peters Historical Dagger is a cunningly plotted tale set in medieval Cambridge. A serial killer is at large, and the Jews are blamed. Henry I offers protection because he needs the money. He sends a medical examiner - a master of the art of death - to find the killer. Great stuff

Gruesome and compelling

Norwegian star Jo Nesbo has obliterated most of his Scandinavian rivals in the bestseller stakes, with The Leopard published in paperback this week... The uncrowned king of Norwegian crime fiction is Jo Nesbo. Books such as The Redbreast (2000) and his imposing novel The Snowman have propelled Nesbo to the heights. Apart from its narrative finesse, his work also provides a coolly objective guide to fluctuations in Norwegian society. There is also a universal feeling that his work is more strikingly individual than that of most of his Scandinavian colleagues... Harry is a lone wolf, a chronic alcoholic separated from his wife and child but in touch with the zeitgeist of his country. And Nesbo gives us a sharp picture of Norwegian society in flux, crammed with relevant detail - as you might expect from an ex-freelance journalist, particularly where the role of the media is described

Nesbo has a skill for dispatching his victims with increasing inventiveness, and he barely lets you draw breath before delivering a virtuoso torture and death scene in the opening chapter

The plot is intriguing, and Nesbo's writing is as taught as ever

It's fascinating to discover, from the incident details, what it is like to live for much of the time in a world under snow... Nesbo writes beautifully

There are passages [which are] so anatomically gruesome...that they can only be properly read through the gaps between protecting fingers

Norwegian star Jo Nesbo has obliterated most of his Scandinavian rivals in the bestseller stakes, with The Leopard published in paperback this week...The uncrowned king of Norwegian crime fiction is Jo Nesbo. Books such as The Redbreast (2000) and his imposing novel The Snowman have propelled Nesbo to the heights. Apart from its narrative finesse, his work also provides a coolly objective guide to fluctuations in Norwegian society. There is also a universal feeling that his work is more strikingly individual than that of most of his Scandinavian colleagues...Harry is a lone wolf, a chronic alcoholic separated from his wife and child but in touch with the zeitgeist of his country. And Nesbo gives us a sharp picture of Norwegian society in flux, crammed with relevant detail - as you might expect from an ex - freelance journalist, particularly where the role of the media is described