Destined to become a special kind of classic – a book that precocious young readers pluck from their parents' shelves and devour with surreptitious eagerness, thrilled to discover a writer who seems at once to read their minds and to offer up the sweet-and-sour fruits of exotic, forbidden knowledge

New York Times

In a literary age of diet and dearth, Tartt invites us to feast ... The opening tragedy strikes a note of rich, flamboyant Southern Gothic that resonates throughout

Independent

You will rarely have read better ... Because of Tartt's mastery of suspense, this book will grip readers all the way through to its bitter end

Guardian