Chief Inspector Wexford is Rendell's most enduring and best creation

As usual, Rendell mirrors aspects of the case in the leading characters' personal lives and her cleverly understated writing bathes them and their actions in a glow of reality that sets her writing above that of her many imitators.

As always with Ruth Rendell's intricately thought-out novels, nothing is as simple as it seems.

Superb plotting and psychological insight make this another Rendell gripper

Utterly absorbing

Ruth Rendell is not only the finest crime novelist there is, but one of the finest novelists writing in the English language

Rendell's mesmerising capacity to shock, chill and disturb is unmatched

Unguessable and brilliant

Chief Inspector Wexford is Rendell’s most enduring and best creation

Has the spooky, crooked-angled, danger-around-every-corner feeling of a Carol Reid film. It reminded me often of The Third Man and that is no mean feat

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!'