A meditation on the secrets we keep... Red Joan's strength lies in the complex personal relationships that underpin the spying game... A powerfully-written exploration of the far-reaching consequences that even the smallest-seeming actions can have

A brilliant spy novel, with an unlikely culprit and a deft, involving plot...tense, beautifully pitched and very moving novel

Sensitive spy thriller… Finely detailed and resolutely sensitive… This excellent period novel still carries some considerable resonance in the age of Bradley Manning

If you loved William Boyd’s Restless, you’ll enjoy this

Compulsive reading... Rooney's approach it to make this a very personal story for Joan. There's love, loss, betrayal, friendship and secrets galore and it gives a believable insight on how one, normal person might be let to betray her country. The true mark of the story is that you find yourself thinking that you might have done exactly what Joan did in those circumstances

A gripping, emotional and expertly plotted spy novel of the Cold War, inspired by a real story. Beautifully written and clever

One of Britain's brightest young writing talents

Gripping

A great thriller and a stirring love story

A gripping narrative and a compelling lead character... This is an absorbing and accomplished novel

A very human Cold War thriller

Rooney is a novelist at home with life’s ambiguities, her plotting pleasingly intricate, her narrative richly textured

A captivating read

An exciting and intelligent novel... Rooney's re-creation of the politics of the day is brilliant

Particulary acute on the muddle of emotion, reason and morality that festers around betrayal...compelling, impressively detailed story, with thrillerish overtones...

A wonderfully plotted spy drama full of intrigue and suspense… A fantastic read

Extremely readable

A brilliant spy novel, with an unlikely culprit and a deft, involving plot... Tense, beautifully pitched and very moving

[A] polished, intricate novel… rich in moral ambiguity

This powerfully-written spy thriller is compulsive reading

A gripping spy novel with an unlikely culprit and a thoroughly researched basis in fact... Perfect for fans of William Boyd's Restless

Intelligent and elegantly written ... a fitting tribute, inventing a love story all of its own

Powerful...an especially appealing, and timely, reworking of the classic. Baker’s novel goes beyond escapist fantasy, drawing subtle comparisons between past and present

A fresh and engrossing story from below the stairs of Pride and Prejudice

A novel that turns upside down the expectations of the genre—and goes to war with a century of American triumphalism, a century of regeneration through violence, a century of senseless slaughter.