Drowning Ruth: The chilling psychological thriller - Tapa dura

'A gripping read' Choice magazine (Choice)

'A compelling mystery' The Times (Play (The Times))

'Assured and dense debut...Schwarz's real achievement is in matching the complexities of her plot with vivid characters' The Scotsman (The Scotsman)

'Austere, tense, painful and rewarding, this book keeps you reading until the vertebrae sulk - and the aftertaste has the bitterness of a linctus whose sharpness conveys its benefit' Frank Delaney (Frank Delaney)

In [the] assured last stroke, Ms Schwarz affirms the psychological underpinnings of a book that would have worked page-turningly well as a straightforward mystery alone. She gives it the extra wisdom that marks DROWNING RUTH as the chilling, precociously good start to a bright new novelist's career (New York Times)

'This is a book that really ought not to be missed' Sentinel Sunday (Sentinel Sunday)

A strong sense of portent and unusually vivid characters distinguish this mesmerizing first novel about horrifying family secrets and nearly annihilating guilt. DROWNING RUTH is a complex and rewarding debut (Anita Shreve)

A riveting first novel... A very suspenseful tale, one that will keep readers up shivering in the heat of an August night (USA Today)

Quietly powerful prose and carefully nuanced description... Creates a satisfying fictional world. An engrossing debut from a writer to watch (Kirkus Reviews)

The first sentence of this brilliantly understated psychological thriller leaps off the page and captures the reader's imagination...Schwarz deftly uses first-person narration to heighten the drama. Her prose is spare but bewitching, and she juggles the speakers and time periods with the surety of a seasoned novelist (Publishers Weekly)