‘Even good books fade and blur in the memory, but a month after reading this novel there is no danger of me confusing it with any other (…) Rusbridge’s creative use of knots is extraordinary; not just as a narrative device, or a source of imagery and symbolism, although they are all of those – knots are part of the story itself’   Extract from detailed review by Isabel Costello. Read more here

‘…immediately engaging for three main reasons: the subject matter (…a tragedy that blows a family apart) the coastal setting, which is strikingly evoked in all its weather-beaten savagery, and the language, which is consistently assured and precise’   Extract from detailed review by Susan Elliott Wright. Read more here

‘The Devil’s Music is that rare thing, a novel that is as bold as it is subtle. It’s a powerful and deeply affecting story of the bond between a mother and her children. It’s also a sharp exposé of the devastating effects of the taboos that govern motherhood … Jane Rusbridge is a brilliant new voice. She evokes hearth-and-home in 1950s Britain with terrific delicacy. This story is fresh, vivid – and startlingly contemporary’ Alison Macleod

‘Vividly and intensely written’ Jane Rogers

‘This is a masterclass in the show don’t tell school of writing’ Extract from detailed review by Pam McIlroy, Host of the Broadway Bookclub in Nottingham…read more

‘Despite the inner journeys of the main characters, this is not a slow read; the prose is crisp, the dialogue sharp; joy and healing as well as sadness draw the reader on to the next loop in Jane Rusbridge’s engrossing novel’   Extract from detailed review from New Zealand by Trisha Nicholson. Read more

‘Spanning the decades between the late 1950s to the 1990s, The Devil’s Music explores the disintegration of a family through lack of communication, grief, anger and the tricks of distorted memory. Beautifully written and displaying a particularly well-tuned sense of time and place.’  ‘ The Literateur’: review by Dr Mardi Stewart … read more

‘There are very few books I finish in twenty-four hours, The Devil’s Music has been one of them. This book will draw you in from the first paragraph’ Amazon 5* review by Joanna Cannon.

‘An unputdownable and beautifully written novel’ Tania Hershman

Read more Amazon reviews of The Devil’s Music here

‘A novel of such calibre whets the appetite for more. Roll on Rusbridge’s next one.’ Margaret Carragher in the Irish Examiner (May 2010)

The Devil’s Music by Jane Rusbridge is a haunting yet subtle story about a family whose secrets are never quite realised until the last few pages. The theme of memory is so poignant throughout that although initially you feel a bit…read more
Laura Loves Reading – Literary Blog

‘Books to get you thinking’
Click the image to read what Expose said about The Devil’s Music.

I was instantly drawn into the story, told in the present tense through two of the character’s points of view (the mother and her son – as a child and as an adult). Some of the chapters were also told in the 2nd person, a narrative approach rarely used but really effective here…read more
Helen J Beal (Helen’s interview with Jane here)

‘Announces a highly original, fresh new talent of rare quality’ … read more The Lady (2009)

There is a great deal of good writing and expert story-telling meshed together in Jane Rusbridge’s novel The Devil’s Music. Set partly in the present and partly in the late 1950s, its detail is impeccable, and every particular of a scene is … read more Cornflower literary blog

It’s my prediction The Devil’s Music, debut novel by Sussex author Jane Rusbridge, will upset a lot of people. Not because it has satanic content (it doesn’t – the music referred to is whistling), or because…read more Anne Hill – Brighton Argus

Essentials Feature – View .PDF

Leicester Mercury – View .PDF