Warm, feisty. Like having Dolly in the room with you

Run Rose Run grips your heart from the start and never lets go. Like a great Dolly Parton song, it is rich with heart, humour and humanity, full of a yearning for the light even in the darkest of nights. Unforgettably good stuff.

Taut and exciting. Patterson's mastery plus Parton's insider knowledge of Nashville's dark underbelly equals one great read.

Run Rose Run is a suspenseful tale of a young musician desperate to escape her troubled past. A thrilling journey from two beloved voices, set against the backdrop of the country-music scene.

Dolly Parton is the beating heart and yearning soul of this amazing novel. Enter James Patterson, who knows how to grab a reader by the throat, kick up the suspense, and move a novel along better than anybody else in the world. Run Rose Run is enthralling, terrifying, enlightening, and moving all at once.

I absolutely loved it!

A detailed, loving, professional portrait of a country music songwriter's process, whether alone and dreaming or down in the studio.

One of the most eagerly anticipated thrillers of 2022

Told with passion and sensitivity it is as much a tribute to Parton's warmth and humanity as it is to Patterson's skill as a thriller writer

A diverting duet . . . [Dolly Parton] is able to supply an authenticity in the details of the American music business . . . The autobiographical aspects of the novel are foregrounded: AnnieLee is as diminutive as Run Rose Run's co-author, with a similarly sparky, self-deprecating character.

Just like Parton's hit songs, you'll find yourself pulled right in

Smart, spirited and thoroughly entertaining . . . set against the backdrop of the toxic music industry, Dolly's fury at the way women are treated blazes off the page. A wish fulfilment fairytale grounded in grit . . . deserves to be a runaway success

An iconic singer and a master storyteller make for a sublime partnership in this fun and fast tale.

All the great country songs are about heartbreak, about gittin' back on your feet and startin' over. Ultimately, that is where this book scores. AnnieLee is an adorable firecracker of a heroine . . . Run Rose Run has a sweet moreishness that will keep millions happily turning its 409 pages (plus lyrics at the back). Parton and Patterson may have invented a new style; let's call it Dolly Mixtures . . . Seriously, is there anything this phenomenal 76-year-old cannot do?

The likable trio will have you rooting for them all the way

If you love Dolly (and let's be honest, who doesn't?), you'll enjoy the ride.

A deliciously hokey yarn about a young singer-songwriter (AnnieLee) struggling to shake off her murky past and make a career in Nashville.

Dreams, drama and danger, with a generous sprinkling of magic and wisdom at every turn, it makes for a super holiday or bedtime read

A perfect daily serving of soapy escapism

A big-hearted tale of music and perseverance from a living country legend is our top literary pick this month . . . Along the way, we get plenty of genuinely interesting information about the country-music world . . . Frankly bonkers fun

Sassy AnnieLee and the Nashville music scene come across as authentic, and the plot speeds along with good humour and energy

James Patterson is promiscuous with his charms. He has co-written thrillers with Bill Clinton, now he has snuggled up to another Southern institution, Dolly Parton. In this thriller a young singer-songwriter in Nashville is determined to make it big, but - surprise, surprise - she's on the run from her deadly past . . . It's going to be big.

America's master storyteller and much-loved performer join forces

Tells the story of a down-on-her-luck singer songwriter whose career is turbo-charged by a country music legend bearing more than a passing resemblance to the legendary Parton herself

Who doesn't love Dolly Parton? As well as being a wonderful singer, songwriter and actor, she has created a remarkable legacy as a philanthropist for children's literacy. Parton has now joined forces for a writing duet with bestselling author James Patterson.

We always knew Dolly Parton was a wit. ("It costs me a lot of money to look this cheap.") In Covid, funding vaccine research, she became a hero. For her next trick, she unveils herself as a novelist, co-writing her debut with prolific hit-machine James Patterson

It could be the literary year's shining jewel. Or more surely, simply sell by the shedload

Such a page-turner

Dolly doesn't miss!

I'd love to have been a fly on the wall when this was being written. There must have been such extraordinary energy and excitement in that room; the resulting thriller certainly suggests as much

Run Rose Run captivated me from the Prologue, you find yourself holding your breath as you get closer to untangling the web of secrets that each character holds . . . Whilst Patterson undoubtedly brings that suspense and mystery, Parton sets the scene well, the landscape is so beautifully painted. Her knowledge of the music industry really brings the characters and story to life as she references real musicians, events and controversies.

Run Rose Run is a story glittering with danger and desire

An epic sweep and an incredible intimacy that makes In Memoriam feel vividly alive...this is a book filled with death and suffering, but also with life and longing. War is hell, yes, but somehow love endures. You read it with your heart in your throat, and your knuckles white. The debut of the year.

Fast-paced and gripping, this debut brings fresh eyes to bear on the incomprehensible carnage that decimated a generation...a moving elegy for lost youth

I'm still recovering from Alice Winn's phenomenal debut novel, and I know that many others will be feeling the same...Winn's characters will go down in literary history

an impressive blend of madcap action, moving meditations on loss and some spicy sex scenes.

This is my standout debut of the year: a page-turning, heart-thudding story of love and war that will burrow deep into your psyche.

Cinematic in scope and emotionally intimate, it viscerally describes the violence of conflict, while beautifully capturing the brave hopefulness of the duo's relationship.

In Memoriam is utterly compelling. These young men live and love with a bright urgency, even as their world burns. Alice Winn has written one of the finest debut novels I have read in years. Her inventiveness, deftness of touch and command of period detail suggests this book marks the start of a truly first-rate career

I adored Redhead by the Side of the Road... It is so subtle, and so brilliant as are all Tyler's novels... Witty and warm, its only fault was that I wanted it to be twice as long!

Tender and beautifully paced

Compassionate and alert to the complexities in even the most ordinary lives, the book reminds us why, at 79, Tyler is held in such high regard

The qualities that have long won Tyler admiration and affection - wry humour, shrewd perception, characters who leap off the page with authenticity - are in generous supply

You can't go wrong with Anne Tyler. She makes it look easy creating characters that feel so believable, so three-dimensional

Tyler engrosses with the 'and-thenand-then' of domestic detail

I do think the world would probably be a better place if everyone read Anne Tyler . . . She's such a brilliantly empathetic writer - there's no 'them' and 'us' in Tyler's world - and she often writes from the perspective of the kind of people who you would walk past and barely notice in the street . . . Reading Tyler helps people to become better people, and I really fully believe that

Tyler's irresistibly readable 23rd novel follows Micah, a socially inept, OCD-ish IT man whose orderly life is turned upside down by the arrival of a son

Tyler's affectionate and quietly observant novel reveals her deep empathy for the hidden struggles of everyday lives

Another shrewd yet kindly novel about the mysterious business of family life by one of the world's great writers

A charmingly offbeat love story

Bursting with vitality and variety, it's a tour de force . . . fizzes with the qualities – characters who almost leap off the page with authenticity, speech and body language wonderfully caught – that, for more than half a century, have won her such admiration and affection

One of the most influential writers of her generation . . . Her books are so irresistibly readable that it's startling to realise what technical marvels they often are

Emma Straub is such a funny and brilliant writer and this time-travelling tale is a charming exploration of what it would be like to find yourself younger and surrounded by the people you love when they're still at the height of their power

Wise and often hilarious

Readers will devour this witty and warmly satisfying novel

A precise and observant writer whose supple prose carries the story along without a snag. Straub's characters are a quirky and interesting bunch . . . it's a pleasure spending time with them

Devilishly observed

Sprinkled with humour and insight

Straub is consistently excellent