It's a roller-coaster thriller and a great read

Younger sister Nicola gives novelists Liane and Jaclyn Moriarty a serious run for the literary awards in this pacey, circle-of-friends thriller, which accelerates in its intensity and sheer originality with every page . . . An Agatha Christie Mousetrap of a "who-wrote-it?" to solve

The premise in this third novel from one of the clever Moriarty sisters is irresistible . . . You'll be hard pressed not to giggle and compare these girls to your own besties

Page-turning mystery

It's hard not to get roped into this delightfully twisted tale of suspicion and mystery intertwined with a frank look at how relationships evolve and sometimes become obsolete. Moriarty has a knack for making you feel like one of the girls, compelling you to solve the mystery of the author of the fifth letter

The brilliant unraveling of this sisterhood of secrets will leave you wondering how well you really know the best friends you've known forever. A must-read before your next Girl's Night

Lifelong friendships, secrets, and pages I couldn't turn fast enough. The Fifth Letter is one of my favorite books this year, and Nicola Moriarty is now on my short list of favorite women's fiction authors

Readers . . . will race to the end as a credit to Nicola's fine sense of pacing and suspense. An author to watch

The meandering stories of these women are held together with the powerful question of who wrote the last letter, which reveals just how precarious childhood friendships are . . . the book adeptly exposes the striking differences among the four friends and the five letters

A delightful, heartwarming exploration of the twists and turns of true friendship, The Fifth Letter was simply delicious from the very first page to the last. Relatable characters, a fast-moving plot and just the right amount of mystery. I was hooked!

A brilliant and compelling novel where a twenty-year-old friendship is tested by the secrets they have been keeping. The plot is fascinating and I found the characters likeable and irritating at the same time. Playing on the anonymity of the letters, the author creates suspense and anticipation as truths - and lies - are spilled page after page

This is one of those books you have to make sure you've got nothing scheduled when you start reading. Because once you start, you're not going to want to stop. Page turner indeed. Wow. And some scenes that made me cry

With secrets and intrigue, this is a compulsive read

Entertaining

A darkly humorous story about friendship

Intrigue, hatred and accusations - phew, it kept me guessing to the end

The premise and its execution will grab readers and refuse to let go. Readers may pick this one up to see how Moriarty's writing compares to her sister Liane's wildly popular novels, but they'll race to the end as a credit to Nicola's fine sense of pacing and suspense. An author to watch.

Entertaining and easy to read

Honest, intimate and ultimately unforgettable

Sympathetic, subtle and sometimes shocking

Plain and beautiful...Strout writes with an extraordinary tenderness and restraint

One of this year's best novels: an intense, beautiful book about a mother and a daughter, and the difficulty and ambivalence of family life

Elizabeth Strout's prose is like words doing jazz

Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge is the best novel I've read for some time

An exquisite novel of careful words and vibrating silences

In this quiet, well observed novel, a mother and her mysteriously ill daughter rebuild their relationship in a New York hospital room. Deft and tender, it lingers in the mind

A worthy follow-up to Olive Kitteridge

I loved My Name is Lucy Barton: she gets better with each book

The standout novel of the year - a visceral account of the relations between mother and daughter and the unreliability of memory

In a brilliant year for fiction, I've admired the nuanced restraint of Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton

Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton shouldn't work, but its frail texture was a triumph of tenderness, and sent me back to her excellent Olive Kitteridge

A rich account of a relationship between mother and daughter, the frailty of memory and the power of healing

This physically slight book packs an unexpected emotional punch

A novel offering more hope

My Name Is Lucy Barton intrigues and pierces with its evocative, skin-peeling back remembrances of growing up dirt-poor.

Masterly