She can make a scene between two women sitting in a café as violent as anything you’ve seen between a couple of guys with baseball bats

Wonderful at exploring the dark corners of the human mind, and the way private fantasies can clash and explode into terrifying violence

Ruth Rendell gets into the mind not only of the hero but into the mind of the villain

Rendell’s eerier capacity to comprehend disturbed criminal minds continues to astonish

Once her characters start twisting on every-tightening tracks, their fates are brilliantly sealed, and it’s never obvouis who’ll be the victim or the culprit. Rendell’s greatest trick is making an unforeseen outcome feel predestined

This collection contains her masterpiece “Thornapple”.

This is an exciting and memorable read. Expertly researched, it feels authentic, but wears its learning reassuringly lightly. Anyone who appreciated Martin Amis's Koba the Dread and Orlando Figes's The Whisperers will love it

Very atmospheric

'Bryant and May are engaging characters and I look forward to their next outing'