Absorbing, chilling and dripping with evil atmosphere

Mankell is the master of the slow burn, and The Return of the Dancing Master makes us crave more of his misty, haunted atmosphere

A worthy successor to the Wallander whodunnits

The new cast is introduced with customary brilliance, and the political edge suggests a fine new direction from this immense talent

Compelling...there's no one better at the genre... His characters are his greatest invention

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