Ratings7
Average rating4
Like most families, they had their secrets... And they hid them under a genteelly respectable veneer. No onlooker would guess that prim Vera Hillyard and her beautiful, adored younger sister, Eden, were locked in a dark and bitter combat over one of those secrets. England in the fifties was not kind to women who erred, so they had to use every means necessary to keep the truth hidden behind closed doors - even murder.
Reviews with the most likes.
It started slow at first but after the first few chapters, the sense of menace grew. It's not such a whodunit as a why the murder took place.
The setting is an English countryside and most of the story takes place during WW2. Faith recounts the personalities of her aunts and the events that led to the murder.
Ruth Rendell's characters are fascinating individuals and it's through her sharp portrayals of them that a scene involving women and a child can become as suspenseful as an action thriller.
This was a quiet family drama-tragedy, laying open ugly conflicts and the cruelty that exists within relationships - overt and subtle.
The perfect accompaniment to the nursing of calcium deposits in my lower abdomen. I read the back half horizontal on the couch, drinking glass after glass of water.
The mystery has no real bottom, and thats a feature not a flaw. A few more proper nouns than I was always ready to keep track of but once I get the geography straight it was riveting.