Shades of Grisham as an intriguing political plot fuels melodrama with some deft comic touches

Lands with the impact of prophecy ... frightening

Written with the kind of page-turning panache that has secured Donald James international best-selling status. A tense and exciting story of deceit and corruption

Delightfully entertaining . . . I for one, think this is incredibly clever. Fowler richly deserves his CWA Library Award.

These books are clever, inventive and wonderfully original – and we simply can’t get enough of them. Prepare to be enchanted.

Fowler is, among other things, a comic genius. He mines the rich and productive seam of peculiarly English comedy which gave us George and Weedon Grossmith, J B ‘Beachcomber’ Morton, the sublime pretensions of Anthony Aloysius Hancock and the surreal world of Basil Fawlty. The book is full of great gags and very good one-liners. Such is the rich entertainment that Fowler serves up – bravura writing, poignancy, compassion, complex plotting, biting humour and a unique view of London’s landscape – that it doesn’t really matter who did what to whom, but he stays staunch and true to the crime fiction genre and gives us the answer to the intricate whodunnit he has constructed. If you love an intriguing murder plot, sparkling humour, wonderful scene-setting and brilliantly stylish writing, then get hold of a copy of this. You won’t be sorry.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that these novels are on the cosy side. Despite the artful plotting, the nostalgic view of an England we have lost, the in-jokes, and the warmth Fowler shares with anyone who loves London, there is dark side. Death is a frequent caller, and when we answer the door, he is not draped in a discreet undertaker’s sheet, but is red in tooth and claw. Christopher Fowler is unique in contemporary English fiction. He blends Golden Age crime with the poetic insights of John Betjeman, the gimlet eye of Charles Dickens and Peter Ackroyd’s dark nostalgia.

[Abigail] is a great character, plausible and well-drawn, in a novel full of them . . . The Coroner's Daughter briskly and efficiently sets its scene, then concentrates on telling a rattling good story . . . an enjoyable and thought-provoking novel.

A deeply satisfying novel, written with a poetic flair which brings time, people and place into vivid life and a compelling plot which had me cheering Abigail on even while I feared for her, her family and friends. A brilliant evocation of strange times and twisted histories.

If you like Treasure Island, and Sheridan le Fanu, and adventures in danger and cold in the Wicklow hills that end with a rescue and the heroes, wrapped in blanket, recovering with a nip of brandy in front of a roaring fire at an inn, you will like this.

I enjoyed it hugely. The author’s evocation of middle-class life in Dublin in 1816 is very convincing and his heroine, Abigail, is wonderfully feisty and engaging. The nascent sciences of forensics, astronomy and animatronics are brought to life . . . the plot cleverly keeps the reader guessing with a growing sense of menace, maintaining the tension until the final and surprising twist. A very fine achievement.’

Andrew Hughes is a wonderfully talented author, bringing Dublin and its surroundings to life with deft characterisations, detailed but never laboured descriptions, and a plot which will have readers racing through the pages. An utterly transporting book and highly recommended.

Andrew Hughes takes great relish in describing the occupational hazards of being a smart woman in restrictive times.

Riveting… exquisitely rendered with masterful language and imagery. You leave Idaho feeling as though you have been given a rare glimpse into the souls of genuinely surprising and convincing people, as E.M. Forster would have characterized the inhabitants of this world. Idaho is a powerful and deeply moving book, an impressive debut that portends good, even great, things to come

One of the best books I've read this year... Emily Ruskovich's writing is remarkably beautiful; the descriptions of the mountain and the forest are breathtaking. And the fact that she doesn't provide clear answers, that everything is a little hazy, makes it exactly the kind of book I enjoy... The characters are complex and real, their motivations always understated... It is a wonderful book and I'll be recommending it to anyone who will listen

It’s the writing which is most striking, managing to be both spare and vibrant in what is essentially a dark novel... There’s no black and white here, no neat resolution: questions remain unanswered and it’s all the better for that

Emily Ruskovich can communicate a world in a sentence

Eerie story about what the heart is capable of fathoming and what the hand is capable of executing... mesmerizing

Haunting, propulsive and gorgeously written, this is a debut not to be missed

A dark and poignant debut

Fans of lush, psychological dramas like Top of the Lake or Broadchurch have their winter reading cut out for them. A provocative first novel filled to the brim with dazzling language, mystery, and a profound belief in the human capacity to love and seek forgiveness

Shocking and heartbreaking, Ruskovich has crafted a remarkable love story and a narrative that will stay with readers

With lovely language and piercing pathos, Idaho focuses on the power of love and the possibilities of forgiveness and memory. This debut novel deals blows as large as life

In Emily Ruskovich's wizardly vision, Idaho is both a place and an emotional dimension. Haunted, haunting, her novel winds through time, braiding events and their consequences in the most unexpected and moving ways

A novel written like music… a chorus of rich and beautiful voices woven deep in the Idaho woods, each trying to come to their own understanding of a terrible tragedy

Emily Ruskovich has written a poem in prose, a beautiful and intricate homage to place, and a celebration of the defeats and triumphs of love. Beautifully crafted, emotionally evocative, and psychologically astute, Idaho is one of the best books I have read in a long time

Exquisitely crafted

Idaho begins with a rusted truck and ends up places you couldn’t imagine. Its language is an enchantment, its vision brutal and sublime

Beautiful, brutal and incandescent

A strange, uncanny novel, bewitching and heady

Richly rendered characters, with a well-delineated supporting cast and a strong sense of place. A debut of astonishing maturity.

This beautifully written and poetic novel is fascinating and disturbing… This is a novel which stays in the mind.

A powerful debut novel.

I kept flipping back, over and over, rereading pages and saying ‘Oh my God’ to myself.

Mina’s recent novel The Long Drop…is her most interesting work

An atmospheric recreation of a vanished Glasgow…and a compelling exploration of the warped criminal mind. A Mina masterpiece

One of the most exciting writers to have emerged in Britain for years.

One of the most fiercely intelligent of crime writers