Arthur Conan Doyle is unique in simultaneously bringing the curtain down on an era and raising one on another, ushering in a genre of writing that, while imitated and expanded, has never been surpassed

I first encountered him through an eccentric maths teacher who would read 'The Speckled Band' and other Conan Doyle adventures to us instead of teaching fractions. He also used to balance chairs on his chin, but that's another story. I'm still fond of Holmes to this day, especially now that I can see him as the crazed, controlling junkie that he clearly was

Conan Doyle triumphed and triumphed deservedly, because he took his art seriously, because he lavished a hundred little touches of real knowledge and genuine picturesqueness on the police novelette

A wonderful Sherlock Holmes story from its sparkling first pages, through its vivid painting of darkest Dartmoor, its undertones of fear of the mind's depths, and on to the triumph of the rational

Queen-elect of forensic mysteries

The writing is lean and mean, and the climax will blow you away

Slaughter deftly turns all assumptions on their head ... Her ability to make you buy into one reality, then another, means that the suprises - and the violent scenes - keep coming

No plodding, predictable plot lines here. A compelling exciting read

A strong and uncompromising thriller

Probably the greatest living crime writer in the world