An emotionally intelligent, brilliantly plotted and beautifully written examination of a very modern family that will keep you gripped until the end.

Something of a moral fable about modern relationships, this is a smart and enjoyable story

The narrative dips back and forth with various points of view from stunningly drawn characters and I devoured it in one long sitting. Take this to the beach, or indeed anywhere — I promise you won’t regret it.

Prepare to totally forget about your family as you become immersed in someone else’s.

There are so many psychological thrillers around right now – but this is one of the best.

Wonderful, endlessly fascinating

If you’re after grown-up, brilliantly written intelligent fiction, The Third Wife should be your first choice

Engrossing

Brilliantly plotted, beautifully written

The makings of a fascination tale are certainly present, and Cep writes with wonderful evocation and intelligence about the racial, political and cultural backgrounds against which this drama too place … Casey Cep has elegantly filled in the gaps.

Lee spent many years working on the project, but it never saw the light of day. Instead, more than four decades later, we have Cep’s absorbing new volume, which succeeds in telling the story that Nelle Harper Lee could not and offers an affecting account of Lee’s attempt to give meaning to a startling series of events … It’s a rich, ambitious, beautifully written book … A gifted journalist who has written frequently for the New Yorker, Cep has imposed order here by providing biographical portraits of three figures: Maxwell, Radney and Lee. Each section moves the intrigue forward while rendering the lives of these real people, and the forces at work within them, as fully and fairly as possible … The result is a revealing triptych, one that tells a crime story but also says a great deal about the racial, cultural and political history of the South. As a portrayal of the life of a writer, the section on Lee is by itself worth the price of admission.

A brilliant account of Harper Lee’s failed attempt to write a true crime book … Along the way, Cep relates the history of courthouses, voodoo, and everything one needs to know about the insanity defence … Meticulously researched, this is essential reading for anyone interested in [Harper] Lee and American literary history.

[A] stunning tale

Casey Cep’s painstakingly researched book is a gripping account of both the trial and Lee’s obsession with it.

Casey Cep has created a book that’s totally astounding and deeply moving.

Astounding

Superb, sparklingly intelligent

In Furious Hours, her brilliant and gripping account, Casey Cep details and analyses [Harper] Lee’s increasingly desperate efforts to write that second book … Furious Hours is probably the nearest we will get to the book Harper Lee tried so hard to complete. It is a tacit tribute to Harper Lee but even more, an attempt, largely successful, to bring her abandoned project to final fruition … A book of compelling portraits … Cep’s narrative swarms with other characters, all credibly realised in their often cantankerous and eccentric ways … Painstakingly researched and beautifully written.

It’s as gripping as a thriller and as coolly dissected as a forensics report.

The inside scoop on Harper Lee’s long, post-Mockingbird silence. After working with Truman Capote on his true-crime book In Cold Blood, Lee attempted something similar, taking a murderous preacher, the Rev Willie Maxwell, as her subject. Despite years of research, Lee never produced a book – but Cep’s beautifully written offering goes a long way to making up for that. Utterly gripping, this is the ideal Christmas treat for anyone who loves Harper Lee.

An ingeniously structured, beautifully written double mystery

Fascinating true story

The astonishing account of murders in Alabama and Harper Lee's attempt to unravel the story.

Fascinating ... Riveting.

A glorious book of heart-warming philosophy and heart-rending sadness

An excellent novel...thrilling reading...incredibly entertaining

Surely one of the most versatile novelists writing today

Vivid, original and always engaging

Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart

Steps inside the mind of Sir Robert Merivel

For a second time this is one to cherish

A Pepysian romp of the first order

Continues in the same superior vein as Restoration… The fusion of such an engrossing character, and the minutiae of another time, remains a marvel

In this evocative and beautifully drawn novel of family and loyalty in the face of an uncertain future Tremain continues the story of a wonderfully unique character

Hugely enjoyable

Merivel’s hapless charm remains intact in this tour de force of literary technique

A sequel that looks back to the earlier novel without ever quite recapturing its spirit is the perfect form in which to evoke that feeling of having to carry on, and of trying to make yourself have fun even with it eventually begins to hurt

A marvelllously rollicking good read, and it is such a pleasure to meet Robert Merivel again. Rose Tremain brings the character to life in a way that makes you want to find out even more about the period. Enormously skilled and deft