If you're in search of an antidote to the in-your-face energy of American crime fiction, this quiet, slender, bracingly bleak tale could well be it

As a portrait of a community possessed by suspicion, The Water's Edge can scarcely be bettered

It's heart-rending, sometimes cold, forensic writing; she pushes you into tight, uncomfortable corners. She's good

It's difficult to out-creep Karin Fossum

An exceptionally fine story, Fossum's real narrative appeal rests on her ability to see the humanity in even the most wretched soul

A chilling story of small-town obsession and death

Reacher sees justice done while kicking commendable amounts of ass ... Intricate plotting makes for an engrossing read

First-rate thriller, with the imperturbable Reacher meting out his brand of justice to the villains

Exciting...will rivet cyber-minded readers

If you've never read Don Winslow, start now

Don Winslow is the kind of cult writer who is so good you almost want to keep him to yourself

A fiction whose effect on the reader is almost as addictive as the slimming sweets on which Eugene becomes so disturbingly dependent

Ruth Rendell's sense of place and disdain for her characters elevates a sordid case of arson into an artful exploration of sinister self-delusion

She has made the city her own, and writes with both knowledge and compassion about its streets and buildings, its transport and its shops - and above all about its inhabitants ... As ever Rendell writes with wry and witty authority ... It's intelligent stuff, and very readable

Rendell is marvellous at psychological tension, and the suspicion that these ways will be sinister is what hooks the reader. Setting out her cast with conviction, she unrolls their lives at a stately, ominous pace

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

Rendell has a Dickensian empathy, informed by a prodigious love of London life. Her account, bursting with colour and vitality, is a treat to read