Alys, Always: A superbly disquieting psychological thriller - Softcover

A marvellous novel. I absolutely adored it... So subtle, funny, tender and so miraculously observed... Utterly brilliant (Jilly Cooper)

Unsettling, unfussy and unputdownable (David Baddiel)

A clever and original story by an amusing and interesting new novelist (Nina Bawden)

Unputdownable (Jenni Murray Woman's Hour, BBC Radio 4)

Hugely enjoyable debut about 30-something Frances Thorpe, a lowly sub-editor on the books pages of a Sunday paper who suddenly and unexpectedly comes into contact with the family of a Man Booker prize-winning author - and there sees an opportunity. Barbara Vine-esque stuff (THE BOOKSELLER)

If I could have a novel made to order; like a Savile Row suit, it would probably be this one... Superbly, even poetically written with an almost feverish hyper-realism, this All About Eve for our times misses no telling detail of the difference between the entitled and unentitled classes... A brilliant idea, brilliantly realised. I loved it, I loved it. I've run out of superlatives and all that remains to say is that I wish I was you; I wish I hadn't read it and had that pleasure to come (Wendy Holden DAILY MAIL)

Harriet Lane's Alys, Always is a superbly disquieting psychological thriller...Lane is a formidable wordsmith, and the literary world is conjured up in all its delicious, gossipy hierarchy...Mordantly funny, yet chilling, this tale of an ordinary woman inveigling her way into a position of power is compulsive reading (Leyla Sanai THE SPECTATOR)

this novel begins with a bang and delivers all sorts of surprises, but also manages some acute and moving observations about bereavement and grief. A very fine debut. Lane works out her dramatic premise with great originality (Kate Saunders THE TIMES)

Wonderfully observed... Lane has her landscape forensically mapped. This is a gripping, psychologically complex achievement, whose greatest success is the lingering sense of unease (Sheena Joughin SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

This chilling and accomplished debut is in classic Ruth Rendell territory. Crucially, the author knows the trick of what to leave out, and of how to tantalise...Frances finds herself admitted to the inner sanctum of London literary life, about which the author, who knows whereof she writes, is most amusing... Lovely, sensuous prose (Rachel Hore INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)