The Snowman is a superb thriller. Jo Nesbo is astonishingly good; he knows how to grab you, by the throat and by the heart

Chillingly adept...creepy, creepy stuff from the very first page

Nesbo handles the tension with aplomb

Nesbo's plotting and pared-back prose style effectively keeps the reader hooked as he ramps up the action to a gripping climax

Hole is all a fictional detective should be...each scene is succinct, dovetails with another, shifts the reader's perspective, and keeps the pace fast and interesting...he ensures his readers keep turning the page to read more

Norwegian crime novel that's as gripping as The Silence of the Lambs

The quality of the writing (and its translation) is so impressive

Nesbo is shaping up to be the next big name in Scandinavian crime fiction... With its tensile-steel narrative grip, this most ambitious of Nesbo's crime novels banishes any fears that the omniscient serial killer scenario has been exhausted

With Henning Mankell having written his last Wallander novel and Stieg Larsson no longer with us, I have had to make the decision, to my own satisfaction, on whom to confer the title of best current Nordic writer of crime fiction. After finishing Jo Nesbo's The Snowman, I hesitate no longer. The Norwegian wins... This is crime writing of the highest order, in which the characters are as strong as the story, where an atmosphere of evil permeates, and the tension never lets up

There is no doubt in my mind that The Snowman is the best so far of Jo Nesbø's series about Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo police... The Snowman is a complex, intellectually satisfying plot with many twists and turns... Do yourself a favour and read it

An ingenious, bizarre and exceptional serial-killer investigation...as riveting as The Silence of the Lambs

Readers wondering where to turn after finishing Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy would be well advised to give Jo Nesbo a try. His Oslo-set thrillers about troubled detective Harry Hole feature a similar mix of icebound settings, relentless action, sexual violence and social comment

My crime fiction book of the year so far

A must-read for Stieg Larsson fans, this pacey crime thriller blends enthralling storytelling with an insightful take on controversial issues

Nesbo effortlessly shows what can be done with the classic detective story, employing clever tricks to maintain almost unbearable suspense

Consolidated his reputation as a Scandinavian novelist ready to fill any Larsson-shaped holes. Nesbo, one ex-rock star who can write, fuses urgent storytelling with a keen engagement with social issues

A superb, tasty, huge page-turner... Seriously scary but a superior thriller

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

King of Scandinavian crime... A writer at the top of his game

Riveting reading from page one

A clever and highly-satisfying espionage thriller... Horowitz nails precisely why Ian Fleming's novels were so popular in the first place. Put simply, he gets James Bond.

Readers will love the way Horowitz stays loyal to the winning formula of Bond creator Ian Fleming, confronting an old enemy with new energy.

There seems an inexhaustible appetite for all things 007. One day, we might tire of him, but if his fictional incarnations remain as entertaining as With a Mind to Kill, we will be hoping that Bond doesn't hang up his Walther PPK for a while yet.

Masterly... There's an enjoyably mischievous tension between Bond, whose entire time in Russia is bleak...and Horowitz, who's plainly having a ball subjecting him to this ordeal.

A gloriously entertaining and surprisingly poignant novel that would make a better movie than many of the Bond stories that actually made it to the big screen.

Suspenseful, seductive, gorgeously written

An intriguing story of complex characters and their long-buried secrets

A must-read for true crime lovers

'I can hear the book club discussions now... undeniably powerful'

Infuses the summer mystery genre with some serious ideas about our obsession with crime stories and our sense of women's identities.