'Denise Mina is a name to be taken very seriously when it comes to crime fiction. .... Mary is a heroine tailor-made for [her] expert literary investigation'
* New York Times, Best Historical Novels of 2021 *
'May be Britain's finest living crime novelist'
* Daily Telegraph *
'contains more suspense and action than many a doorstopper of a historical thriller ... Written in a style allowing access to multiple characters' thoughts, rich with cinema-sharp imagery, Rizzio is a tour de force work of art'
* The Wall Street Journal, Best Books of the Year 2021 *
'[Rizzio] is retold in Mina's characteristically compelling style which brings the intrigue and machinations of a key moment in Scottish history vibrantly to life'
* Waterstones Best Books of 2021: Crime and Thriller *
'a writer of huge skill and inventiveness who blends tense, well-crafted crime fiction with social conscience and historical weight'
* The Bookseller *
'Bestseller Mina vividly recreates a gruesome episode from the Tudor era in this searing novella set mostly over the course of a single day, Mar. 9, 1566. Mina interjects well-wrought characterizations; this superior historical thriller reads like a real-life episode of Game of Thrones'
* Publishers Weekly (starred) *
'This is an edgy, provocative and thrilling classic in the making'
* Scottish Books International *
'it's apt that Mina should embrace the short form novella, encapsulating the darkness and drama yet somehow managing to keep it light and at times funny'
-- Janet Christie * The Scotsman Magazine *
'it is refreshing to be presented with a very readable, if embellished, account of Rizzio's murder and some of its implications for Scotland'
-- Graham Drew * Press and Journal, Book of the Week *
'Denise Mina applies a true crime lens to revisit 24 hours that transformed the monarchy and it's absolutely riveting'
-- Sam Baker * Noon.org.uk *
'Riveting ... darkly clever'
* Popsugar *
'Stabby and pithy ... an intriguing sketch in blood'
* Guardian, Book of the Day *
'an electric and utterly absorbing battle of wills'
-- Roger Cox * The Scotsman *
'An omniscient narrative voice, which delivers historical exposition in quick ironic bursts...Mina's vivid style and the swift-moving plot are a pleasure. More historical fiction, please Ms Mina'
-- Antonia Senior * The Times, Best New Historical Fiction *
'This riveting novella retells the intrigue behind [Rizzio's] death'
* i Paper *
'I gobbled up Denise Mina's short and immersive Rizzio - a fictionalised account of the murder of Mary Queen of Scots's private secretary in 16th-century Holyrood - as an audiobook on a single long car journey'
-- Cal Flyn * The Times *
'In Rizzio she has created a plus-sized novella with the passion of an opera, a tour de force of imaginative reconstruction'
* Wall Street Journal Europe *
'I had an absolute thrill-ride reading your book ... ... what you manage to do with this is quite dazzling... you manage to present a feminist, female perspective on her [Mary Queen of Scot's] dilmena and her intelligence and a couple of the other women there too...absolutely incredible... your prose is beautiful, the dialogue drawn from historical record. Another brilliant book. Congratulations'
-- Janice Forsyth * BBC Radio Scotland *
'Mina, a contemporary crime novelist, retells this famous tale with great panache and gives it both a touch of noir and a blackly comic edge... gripping'
* Sunday Times *
'Mina's real genius is to draw out the private feelings of [her] protagonists with such economy, in a short, pacey but incredibly tender account...Making her tale all the more vivid is Edinburgh itself...[the tale] seems fresh in her retelling'
-- Mike Wade * Times Online *
'Set in one day it really is a fabulously, engaging and moving read. Anybody with an interest in history, crime - anything Scottish - would love it'
-- Susie Troup, Director of Hexham Festival * Broadcasting House BBC Radio 4 *
'Mina does an excellent job of grabbing the reader's attention and transporting them to that horrible night ... If you love reading about Mary, Queen of Scots, and Stuart Scotland during the 16th century, you will find Rizzio by Denise Mina thrilling'
* Adventures of a Tudor Nerd blog (US) *
'Denise Mina brilliantly manages to be funny, heart-wrenching, gut-punching and addictive all at once'
-- Nicci French
