"One of the most unique and compelling detectives I've come across in years" - Mark Billingham

"Rowling's descriptions of contemporary London are excellent" - Mail on Sunday

"Rowling switches genres seamlessly ... A gritty, absorbing tale" - Ellen Shapiro, People

"The most engaging British detective to emerge so far this year . . . An astonishingly mature debut from Galbraith, it marks the start of a fine crime career" - Daily Mail online

"Everytime I put this book down, I looked forward to reading more. Galbraith writes at a gentle pace, the pages rich with description and with characters that leap out of them. I loved it. He is a major new talent" - Peter James

"Cleverly plotted ... Rowling serves up a sushi platter of red herring, sprinkling clues along the way, before Strike draws a confession out of the killer in a climax straight out of Agatha Christie" - Entertainment Weekly

"It's terrific ... A brilliant achievement, mordantly funny and monumentally absorbing ... A masterful novel, the kind of big, noisy, busy, beautiful book in which it is so easy and so pleasurable to become enmeshed" - Chicago Tribune

"The most engaging British detective to emerge so far this year . . . An astonishingly mature debut from Galbraith, it marks the start of a fine crime career" - Daily Mail online