Barbara Vine

'Eine der großen Lügnerinnen der Welt' nennt Elisabeth die junge Bell. Und trotzdem, oder vielleicht deswegen: noch nie zuvor war Elisabeth von einer Frau dermaßen fasziniert. Selbst als Bells kriminelle Vergangenheit offenkundig wird, kann sich Elisabeth nicht aus ihrer Liebe zu Bell lösen. Immer wieder findet sie Erklärungen und Entschuldigungen für das unglaubliche Verhalten dieser mysteriösen Frau...

'A rich, complex and beautifully crafted novel' P.D. JamesThe prize-winning classic that 'changed the thriller landscape', with a new foreword from Val McDermid.VERA HILLYARD. AUNT. MOTHER. MURDERESS.Faith Severn's life has long been overshadowed by the mystery surrounding her aunt. A respectable woman who committed a crime so terrible she was hung for it. Now, the time has come to piece her story together.What secret caused two devoted sisters to turn from love to hate? And was Vera born a killer. . .Or was she driven to it?'Brilliantly plotted. Vine is not afraid to walk down the mean streets of the mind and can build up an almost tangible atmosphere of menace and unease' Daily Telegraph'Will linger in your memory long after you have closed the book. A first-rate novel' Washington PostA Dark-Adapted Eye is a modern classic. If you enjoy the crime novels of P.D. James and Ian Rankin you will love this book.Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has written fifteen novels using this pseudonym, including A Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet which both won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Her other books include: A Dark Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs; Gallowglass; Asta's Book; No Night Is Too Long; In the Time of His Prosperity; The Brimstone Wedding; The Chimney Sweeper's Boy; Grasshopper; The Blood Doctor; The Minotaur; The Birthday Present and The Child's Child.

Die alte Dame Stella vererbt ihrer jungen Pflegerin Jenny ein leeres Haus im Moor und ein dunkles Geheimnis. Doch auch Jenny verbirgt etwas, das keiner wissen darf. Abgründig spannend und zutiefst beunruhigend zeichnet Barbara Vine das Doppelporträt zweier faszinierender, höchst unterschiedlicher Frauen, für die das Paradies der Erinnerung auch eine Hölle ist.

Ein langer, heißer Sommer im Jahr 1976. Eine zufällig zusammengewürfelte Gruppe junger Leute sammelt sich um Adam, der ein altes Haus in Suffolk geerbt hat. Sorglos leben sie in den Tag hinein, lieben, stehlen, existieren. Zehn Jahre später werden auf dem bizarren Tierfriedhof des Ortes zwei Skelette gefunden - das einer jungen Frau und das eines Säuglings...

The Child's Child is the new crime novel by bestselling, prize-winning author Barbara Vine, pen-name for the late bestselling author Ruth RendellWhat sort of betrayal would drive a brother and sister apart?When Grace and her brother Andrew inherit their grandmother's house in Hampstead, they decide to move in together. It seems the obvious thing to do: they've always got on well, the house is large enough to split down the middle, and neither of them likes partying or loud music. There's one thing they've forgotten though: what if one of them wants to bring a lover into the house? When Andrew's partner James moves in, it alters the balance - with almost fatal consequences.Barbara Vine's is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell, and The Child's Child is the first book she has published under that name since The Birthday Present in 2008. It's an intriguing examination of betrayal in families, and of those two once-unmentionable subjects, illegitimacy and homosexuality. A taut, thrilling read, it will be enjoyed by readers of P.D. James and Ian Rankin.'Cracking stuff. The Vine continues to flourish . . . (A) miracle of storytelling with her customary aplomb and cool composure' Express on The Child's Child'The Rendell/Vine partnership has for years been producing consistently better work than most Booker winners put together' Ian RankinRuth rendall has published fourteen novels under the Vine name, two of which, Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet, won the prestigious Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Also available in Penguin by Barbara Vine: The Minotaur, The Blood Doctor, Grasshopper, The Chimney Sweeper's Boy, The Brimstone Wedding, No Night is Too Long, Asta's Book, King Solomon's Carpet, Gallowglass, The House of Stairs, A Dark-Adapted Eye.

From three-time Edgar Award-winning mystery writer Ruth Rendell, writing here under her Barbara Vine pseudonym, an ingenious literary psychological thriller that's a novel-within-a-novel about brothers and sisters and the violence lurking behind our society's taboos. When their grandmother dies, Grace and Andrew Easton inherit her sprawling, book-filled London home, Dinmont House. Rather than sell it, the adult siblings move in together, splitting the numerous bedrooms and studies. The arrangement is unusual, but ideal for the affectionate pair--until the day Andrew brings home a new boyfriend. A devilishly handsome novelist, James Derain resembles Cary Grant, but his strident comments about Grace's doctoral thesis soon puncture the house's idyllic atmosphere. When he and Andrew witness their friend's murder outside a London nightclub, James begins to unravel, and what happens next will change the lives of everyone in the house. Just as turmoil sets in at Dinmont House, Grace escapes into reading a manuscript--a long-lost novel from 1951 called The Child's Child--never published because of its frank depictions of an unwed mother and a homosexual relationship. The book is the story of two siblings born a few years after World War One. This brother and sister, John and Maud, mirror the present-day Andrew and Grace: a homosexual brother and a sister carrying an illegitimate child. Acts of violence and sex will reverberate through their stories. The Child's Child is an enormously clever, brilliantly constructed novel-within-a-novel about family, betrayal, and disgrace. A master of psychological suspense, Ruth Rendell, in her newest work under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, takes us where violence and social taboos collide. She shows how society's treatment of those it once considered undesirable has changed--and how sometimes it hasn't.

Asta's Book is a classic double-detective story by crime master Barbara VineFor a good, absorbing, well-told story, you could hardly better the unveiling of Asta's secret' Sunday TimesIt is 1905. Asta and her husband Rasmus have come to East London from Denmark with their two little boys. With Rasmus constantly away on business, Asta keeps loneliness and isolation at bay by writing a diary. These diaries, published over seventy years later, reveal themselves to be more than a mere journal. For they seem to hold the key to an unsolved murder and to the mystery of a missing child. It falls to Asta's granddaughter Ann to unearth the buried secrets of nearly a century before.'A dazzling domestic thriller' Guardian'Obsessively readable' Sunday Telegraph'Engrossing . . . a mixture of biography, true crime and romance people with vivid minor players and red with herrings' Independent on Sunday'Absolutely enthralling ... the best yet from the Vine/Rendell bureau. Essential reading' Literary Review'Simply put, Vine is one of the greatest writers ever' Scott TurowAsta's Bookis a modern crime masterpiece and will be enjoyed by readers of P.D. James, Ian Rankin and Scott Turow.Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has written fifteen novels using this pseudonym, including A Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet which both won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Her other books include: A Dark Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs; Gallowglass; Asta's Book; No Night Is Too Long; In the Time of His Prosperity; The Brimstone Wedding; The Chimney Sweeper's Boy; Grasshopper; The Blood Doctor; The Minotaur; The Birthday Present and The Child's Child.

King Solomon's Carpet is a prize-winning crime classic from bestselling author Barbara VineWinner of the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger Award'The tension grows ... an overwhelming sense of foreboding ... when the unravelling takes place, it is brilliantly unexpected and original' The TimesJarvis Stringer lives in a crumbling schoolhouse overlooking a tube line, compiling his obsessive, secret history of London's Underground. His presence and his strange house draw a band of misfits into his orbit: young Alice, who has run away from her husband and baby; Tom, the busker who rescues her; truant Jasper who gets his kicks on the tube; and mysterious Axel, whose dark secret later casts a shadow over all of their lives.Dispossessed and outcast, those who come to inhabit Jarvis's schoolhouse are gradually brought closer together in violent and unforeseen ways by London's forbidding and dangerous Undergound . . .'I longed to know what would happen next. Towards the end the tension fairly gets you by the throat' Sunday Express'Vine arouses a genuine fear that all that is normal is in danger of being lost' Sunday TimesKing Solomon's Carpet is a modern masterpiece of the crime genre and will leave you gripped from the first page to the last. If you enjoy the novels of P.D. James, Ian Rankin and Scott Turow, you will love this book.Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has written fifteen novels using this pseudonym, including A Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet which both won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Her other books include: A Dark Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs; Gallowglass; Asta's Book; No Night Is Too Long; In the Time of His Prosperity; The Brimstone Wedding; The Chimney Sweeper's Boy; Grasshopper; The Blood Doctor; The Minotaur; The Birthday Present and The Child's Child.

A classic of the crime genre, A Fatal Inversion plunges you into the darker side of humanity with a plot that will keep you guessing throughout!'An absolute winner . . . a gripping read from start to end' Daily Mail'Brilliant. Vine has the kind of near-Victorian narrative drive' Sunday Times'I defy anyone to guess the conclusion' Daily Telegraph*****In the long hot summer of 1976, a group of young adults camp in Wyvis Hall, a beautiful Suffolk country house, after one of them unexpectedly inherits it. Revelling in their self-indulgent, irresponsible paradise, they scavenge, steal and sell heirlooms - to entertain and simply exist.Ten years later, when the current owner buries their beloved dog in the Hall's animal cemetery, the bodies of a woman and child are discovered. But which woman? And whose child? As the facts slowly emerge, their past begins to catch up with them . . .Written under Ruth Rendell's pen name, Barbara Vine, if you enjoy the novels of P.D. James, Ian Rankin and Ann Cleeves, you will love this book.*****'One of the best Barbara Vine novels' Goodreads Review'Not an ordinary mystery . . . it is compelling and certainly thought-provoking' Goodreads Review'Vine is expert at the slow disclosure of facts and feelings' Goodreads Review

The Minotaur - a thrilling novel from the bestselling queen of crime Barbara VineKerstin Kvist enters crumbling Lydstep Old Hall to live with the Cosways and to act as nurse to John: a grown man fed drugs by his family to control his lunatic episodes. But John's strangeness is grotesquely mirrored in that of his four sisters who roam the dark, mazy Essex country house under the strict gaze of eighty-year-old Mrs Cosway.Despite being treated as an outsider, Kerstin is nevertheless determined to help John. But she soon discovers that there are others in the family who are equally as determined that John remain isolated, for sinister reasons of their own ...'The reader is kept in suspense throughout . . . vintage wine from the Rendell vine' Independent'The Cosway family is a mesmerizing creation... I rushed through the last pages' Penelope Lively, Sunday Times'Stealthy, credible, ingenious and addictive' Literary Review'The Rendell/ Vine partnership has for years been producing consistently better work than most Booker winners put together' Ian RankinThe Minotaur is a modern masterpiece of the crime genre and will leave you gripped from the first page to the last. If you enjoy the novels of P.D. James, Ian Rankin and Scott Turow, you will love this book.Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has written fifteen novels using this pseudonym, including A Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet which both won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Her other books include: A Dark Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs; Gallowglass; Asta's Book; No Night Is Too Long; In the Time of His Prosperity; The Brimstone Wedding; The Chimney Sweeper's Boy; Grasshopper; The Blood Doctor; The Minotaur; The Birthday Present and The Child's Child.

The Chimney Sweeper's Boy - a classic crime novel by bestselling, prize-winning author Barbara Vine'Gripping, almost impossible to put down' Guardian'One of the most frightening novels I have ever read ... Gerald Candless, the monster at the heart of the maze, is a marvellous creation' Amanda Craig, Express on SundayWhen successful author Gerald Candless dies of a sudden heart attack, his eldest, adoring daughter Sarah embarks on a memoir of him and soon discovers that her perfect father was not all he appeared to be. That in fact he wasn't Gerald Candless at all. But then, who was he? And what terrible secret had driven him to live a lie for all those years?'So ingeniously constructed, its truth and falsehoods are so deftly and convincingly interwoven, that its solution ... is as jolting as a flash of lightning' Sunday Times'About the power of taboos, transgressions, guilts, deceptions, horrors, atonements, upsets and upheavals ... gripping' IndependentIf you enjoy the crime novels of P.D. James, Ian Rankin and Scott Turow, you will love The Chimney Sweeper's Boy. Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has written fifteen novels using this pseudonym, including A Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet which both won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Her other books include: A Dark Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs; Gallowglass; Asta's Book; No Night Is Too Long; In the Time of His Prosperity; The Brimstone Wedding; The Chimney Sweeper's Boy; Grasshopper; The Blood Doctor; The Minotaur; The Birthday Present and The Child's Child.

The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine - a gripping, psychological thriller packed with menace Intensely imagined, fearful and satisfying' Sunday TimesTory MP Ivor Tesham has unconventional tastes. And in bored housewife Hebe Furnal he finds someone to share and enact his sexual fantasies. However, one day it all goes terribly wrong. Ivor plans a special liaison for Hebe's birthday - a daring sexual adventure. But dangerous games have unforeseen costs and consequences. And when there is an accidental death, scandal and ruin cannot be far behind . . . How long can a secret stay a secret? How long will friends protect a reputation? And how long before guilt catches up with you?'The pre-eminent genius of the psychological thriller' Herald'Gripping, compelling' Mail on Sunday'Vintage Vine' Literary ReviewIf you like P.D. James, Ian Rankin and Scott Turow, you will love The Bithday Present by Barbara Vine. Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has written fifteen novels using this pseudonym, including A Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet which both won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Her other books include: A Dark Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs; Gallowglass; Asta's Book; No Night Is Too Long; In the Time of His Prosperity; The Brimstone Wedding; The Chimney Sweeper's Boy; Grasshopper; The Blood Doctor; The Minotaur; The Birthday Present and The Child's Child.

Kerstin Kvist, eine junge schwedische Krankenschwester, kommt nach Lydstep Old Hall zur Pflege des kranken John Cosway. Doch nicht nur der erwachsene Sohn des Hauses verhält sich auffällig, auch der Rest der Familie wirkt eigenartig. Aus dieser Welt gibt es kaum noch ein Entkommen...

Contemporary / British English Twenty years ago a group of people lived in a house in London. One of them was murdered, but who was it? We slowly find out the truth, as the past, the present and the future join together in a frightening story.

Swedish nurse Kirsten Kvist has no idea what to expect when she takes a job with the Cosway family at their odd, almost grand home, deep in the Essex countryside, but she soon discovers a bitterly divided family in which old secrets, sexual obsession, and betrayal lead to murder. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

Writing as Barbara Vine, Britain's preeminent mystery novelist Ruth Rendell crafts literary suspense of the highest order. With this richly textured and utterly absorbing page-tumer, Vine adds to her growing reputation as one of the great writers of our time.Bestselling and critically acclaimed novelist Gerald Candless dies suddenly, and leaves behind a wife and two doting daughters. To sort through her grief, his daughter Sarah puts aside her university studies and agrees to write a biography of her famous father. But as she begins her research and pulls back the veil of his past, her life is slowly torn apart: a terrible logic begins to unfold that explains her mother's remoteness, her father's need to continually reinvent himself -- and sheds shocking light on a long-forgotten London murder.