The Girl Next Door
a mesmerising mystery of murder and memory from the award-winning queen of crime, Ruth Rendell
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3.5 • 28 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
In all her novels, multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell digs deep beneath the surface to investigate the secrets of the human psyche and The Girl Next Door is no exception. This compelling and captivating mystery, with its taut plotting and spine-tingling twists and turns is perfect for fans of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon.
'This novel reminded me of the singularity of Ruth Rendell's talent, her effortless mastery of language and her uncanny genius for mapping a criminal mind.' -- The Times
'Rendell is as masterful as ever; her writing tense, brittle, and brilliant.' -- Sunday
Mirror
'Couldn't put it down' -- ***** Reader review
'Fantastic book' -- ***** Reader review
'Fabulous read' -- ***** Reader review
'Love the way Ruth Rendell weaves the plot - she never disappoints me' -- ***** Reader review
'Brilliant storyline, couldn't put it down' -- ***** Reader review
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Beneath the green meadows of Loughton, Essex, a dark network of tunnels has been dug. A group of children discover them. They play there. It becomes their place.
Seventy years on, the world has changed. Developers have altered the rural landscape. Friends from a half-remembered world have married, died, grown sick, moved - or disappeared.
Work on a new house called Warlock uncovers a long buried grisly secret: the bones of two severed hands are discovered in a box, and an investigation into a long-buried crime of passion begins.
The friends, who played together as children, begin to question their past. And a weary detective, more concerned with current crimes, must investigate a case of murder.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this assured novel of psychological suspense from Diamond Dagger Award winner Rendell (The St. Zita Society), a gruesome discovery jolts a group of friends and acquaintances who grew up outside London during WWII. Two people's hands severed and interred inside a cookie tin are unearthed at a former construction site where they once hid and schemed. At the center of the now aged clique is the "girl next door," Daphne Jones, ever envied and admired. John "Woody" Winwood, a man whose wife went missing with her lover during the turmoil of the blitzkrieg, is a malevolent presence, past and present, in the story. In contemporary Britain, Winwood's son, Michael, must face his nonagenerian father, who abandoned him decades before and then married into money, inheriting a fortune from his subsequent wives. Rendell keeps the plot and the home fires burning, and the most memorable characters, Daphne and Woody, cast sufficient light to brighten their somewhat dull companions.
