A dark, mesmeric fever-dream of a book.
RUTH WARE
Fragile is absolutely STUNNING. [Sarah Hilary is] an astonishingly gifted writer, with an almost scalpel-like ability to dissect human motivation and convey it deliciously devoid of sentimentality. I was GRIPPED by Fragile, it took me into a whole other world and I was sorry to leave it.
MARIAN KEYES
(Fragile) is a Gothic joy. Think Barbara Vine writing Entertaining Mr Sloane.
IAN RANKIN
I’ve been a fan of Sarah Hilary since first falling for her detective duo Marnie Rome and Noah Jake. Fragile sees her in new territory. A poetic slice of modern Gothic, it’s as perfectly plotted as her previous novels and equally addictive. Is there anything she can’t do?
PAUL BURSTON
An eerie, stunningly crafted slice of modern Gothic and a nod to du Maurier’s Rebecca, Fragile is a razor-sharp psychological thriller about a woman scarred by her past, an enigmatic employer and a villa full of secrets.
WATERSTONES
A clever and compelling slice of modern gothic with shades of Daphne Du Maurier and an underlying message of hope.
ANNA MAZZOLA
Beautifully written modern gothic … Sarah Hilary’s writing is unique to her: exploring society and human nature in a sensitive, engrossing way. Ingenious, original and BRILLIANT.
WILL DEAN
Fragile is everything we’ve come to expect from Hilary: complex, believable characters, ingenious plotting, and rich storytelling full of intrigue and dark foreboding.
MEL MCGRATH
Hauntingly beautiful and full of slicing suspense.
LIZ ROBINSON, LOVEREADING
In Fragile, Sarah Hilary has written an hypnotic novel — claustrophobic, gripping and, at times, poetic. She cleverly plays with and subverts many of the cliches of the modern crime novel to produce something startlingly original.
ANDREW WILSON, BIOGRAPHER OF PATRICIA HIGHSMITH
The writing is so elegant, so restrained, that it brings to mind Patricia Highsmith. Fragile is a very fine, and very creepy psychological thriller.
LUCY ATKINS
A gorgeously written, tense and atmospheric novel. Sarah Hilary peels back the layers of mystery so skilfully that it was impossible to look away for a moment.
GYTHA LODGE
Fragile is an exceptional novel … The writing is superb, and every page glitters with dark brilliance. I loved the Gothic quality of the book, the twisted plot, and the sense of peril that pervades the story.
KATE RHODES
I loved this. A riveting read, dark with dread. Written in vivid and sensuous prose. Evocative, perceptive and illuminating.
CATH STAINCLIFFE
A swirling, corrosive tale of death and deceit, as unsettling as it is beguiling.
LUKE JENNINGS, AUTHOR OF KILLING EVE
Highly original, beautifully written.
SHARON BOLTON
A beguiling thriller of considerable ambition and ingenuity, Fragile marks Sarah Hilary as a twenty-first century du Maurier, a writer who plunges the depths of human nature, finding the darkest, most deviant corners, but also the fleeting hopes and brittle aspirations. This is a truly outstanding work of modern gothic.
EVA DOLAN
Gothically creepy and addictive … Beautifully written with brilliant characters.
SABINE DURRANT
Sarah Hilary’s first standalone is everything you’d expect from such a gifted writer. It’s beautifully crafted, smart and unsettling – a dark river of a book, with a chilling undertow.
MICK HERRON
Perfectly plotted, beautifully written modern gothic. Timeless, tense and tender, Fragile will worm its way deep into your heart, just as the characters insinuate themselves into each others’ lives. I absolutely loved it.
ERIN KELLY
Fragile is a dark kind of modern fairytale, Cinderella reimagined by a writer who knows how to turn a phrase until it’s sharp enough to cut. With echoes of du Maurier and Highsmith, Fragile is compelling, poetic and, at times, terrifying. Sarah Hilary is brilliant at framing love with hate, compassion with cruelty, and her skill in creating monstrous characters is unsurpassed.
JANE CASEY
In Fragile, Sarah Hilary has created a beautifully written modern gothic masterpiece, so full of intrigue, and mysteries layered upon mysteries that the unravelling may well shred your nerves, in the best way possible.
LIZ NUGENT
Fragile is a fever dream. A nightmarish slant on the world delivered expertly and with heart. Tension like cold steel. Characters you won’t forget. Sarah Hilary is a modern-day Highsmith.
STEVE CAVANAGH
Wonderfully twisty and atmospheric. Kept me second guessing right until the end.
SAM BAKER
Fragile is an extraordinary novel. Affecting, unflinching, so atmospheric … the pin-sharp characterisation is as good as it gets. I truly lived in Nell’s world for the 48 hours it took to tear through it.
CAZ FREAR
Sarah Hilary has always known how to chill her readers – Fragile dials the chill factor up to 11.
VAL MCDERMID
Tremendously atmospheric! Fragile will tangle you up in a house full of secrets and broken lives. Beautifully written, its dark secrets reveal themselves with a deft hand.
RACHAEL BLOK
Extraordinary … an immersive psychological thriller that plunges us into an underworld of emotional and physical exploitation. There are shades of Highsmith … Brilliant stuff.
ANDREW TAYLOR
Sarah Hilary’s Fragile is a beautifully written deep dive into the kind of seductive but dangerous darkness that hides away behind closed doors and respectable facades.
ROWAN COLEMAN
Sarah Hilary writes beautifully and unflinchingly.
PETER JAMES
Never Be Broken gloriously demonstrates that modern crime fiction really isn’t all about the murders.
VAL MCDERMID
If you’re not reading this series of London-set police procedurals then you need to start doing so right away … Hilary belts out a corker of a story, all wrapped up in her vivid, effortless prose. Long may Marnie Rome walk the streets of our capital.
ALISON FLOOD, GUARDIAN