

The author virtually defies one to pause between incidents in the exquisitely controlled developments that peak in a marvel of irony that no reader could foresee.Ĭopyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. Making headlines, the news stuns the Ecalpemos conspirators, long since established as proper London citizens. Then the present owners of Wyvis Hall dig a grave for their dog in the pet cemetery on the grounds and unearth human remains. For 10 years, the former friends live secure in the belief that they alone know their terrible secret. The months drift by until a horrible event scatters the lotus eaters, and Adam sells the property. Inverting the word "someplace," Adam names his eden Ecalpemos where he revels through a summer with four companions.


Evoked in beautifully ambient writing, the setting is a rural estate, Wyvis Hall, which Adam Verne-Smith inherits at age 19. This is the second, a mystery like all her works, transcending the genre. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.Ī Dark-Adapted Eyefirst novel under the pseudonym Barbara Vine by the British author Ruth Rendellwon the MBA Edgar. 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.

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. Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. James, Ian Rankin and Scott Turow, you will love this book. A most satisfying end' Daily Telegraph 'Nimbly written with all the Dickensian values of vivid characterization, fine prose style and a cunningly devised plot that shifts and twists and keeps you on the edge of your chair' Val Hennessy, Daily Mail A Fatal Inversion is a modern classic of the crime genre. the clues are cunningly planted, so that it seems one should have known all along. Which woman? Whose child? 'I defy anyone to guess the conclusion. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and child are discovered in the Hall's animal cemetery. Adam, Rufus, Shiva, Vivien and Zosie hardly ask why they are there or how they are to live they scavenge, steal and sell the family heirlooms. that compels a reader to go on turning the pages' Sunday Times In the long hot summer of 1976, a group of young people are camping in Wyvis Hall. Vine has the kind of near-Victorian narrative drive. a gripping read from start to end' Daily Mail 'Brilliant. A Fatal Inversion - a classic thriller from the queen of crime Barbara Vine 'An absolute winner.
