«Compelling...Webster's hot-house atmosphere and collection of oddballs and freaks are brilliantly evoked...She orchestrates suspense masterfully and her writing has a quality of stillness, of effortless deliberation, which is peculiarly suited to the sense of foreboding.»

<i>Literary Review</i>

«Full of humour, surprise and powerful images...Hustvedt's real triumph, though, is to take the ordinary and make it strange while showing how all strangeness is rooted in the ordinary.»

<i>Observer</i>

«Told with the gripping pace of a straightforward mystery tale...A natural born storyteller»

<i>Independent</i>

«A taut and convincing drama, as well as an intriguing metaphysical thriller»

<i>Sunday Times</i>

«Subtle, complex and engaging»

<i>Financial Times</i>

«Hustvedt's powerful theme of small-town mentality shows how intimacy and claustrophobia, secrets and skeletons, come out of the same closet...[an] exploration of the narrow line between imagination and reality while still managing to be a rip-roaring adventure story...beautifully written»

<i>Scotsman</i>

«A startlingly good novel, tautly written and very sexy.»

<i>Marie Claire</i>