BARBARA VINE

When Sandor snatched little Joe from the path of a London Tube train, he was quick to make clear the terms of the rescue. 'I saved your life,' he told the homeless youngster, 'so your life belongs to me now.' Sandor began to tell him a fairy-tale: an ageing prince, a kidnapped princess chained by one ankle, a missed rendezvous. But what did this mysterious story have to do with Sandor's preparations? Joe had only understood his own role: he was a gallowglass, the servant of a Chief ...

'In a masterly and hypnotic synthesis of past, present and terrifying future, Vine casts a stone into her dark pond and lets the ripples spread . . . she has created a work that is both compelling and disturbing'. Sunday Times. 'This is the third psychological thriller by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine and when I say it surpasses the first two that's really saying something . . . Vine has not only produced a quietly smouldering suspense novel but also presents an accurately atmospheric portrayal of London in the heady 60's. Literally unputdownable'. Time Out.

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.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.

Gone with the Wind is a great romantic story of love and war and one of the best-selling books of all time. In Part 2, the American Civil War has destroyed Scarlett OHaras comfortable world. Will she lose her home too? Or can she save it and rebuild her life?

When 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?

Ivor Tesham is a handsome, single, young member of Parliament whose political star is on the rise. When he meets a woman in a chance encounter-a beautiful, leggy, married woman named Hebe-the two become lovers obsessed with their trysts, spiced up by what the newspapers like to call "adventure sex." It''s the dress-up and role-play that inspire Ivor to create a surprise birthday present for his beloved that involves a curbside kidnapping. It''s all intended as mock-dangerous foreplay, but then things take a dark turn. After things go horribly wrong, Ivor begins to receive anonymous letters that reveal astonishingly specic details about the affair and its aftermath. Somehow he must keep his role from being uncovered-and his political future from being destroyed by scandal. Like a heretic on the inquisitor''s rack, Ivor is not to be spared the exquisitely slow and tortuous unfolding of events, as hints, nuances, and small revelations lay his darkest secrets hideously bare for all the world to see. "The Birthday Present" is a deft, insightful, and compulsively readable exploration of obsessive desire-and the dark twists of fate that can shake the lives of even those most insulated by privilege, sophistication, and power.

Set amidst an age of IRA bombings, the first Gulf War, and sleazy politics, ''The Birthday Present'' is the gripping story of a fall from grace, and of a man who carries within him all the hypocrisy, greed and self-obsession of a troubled era.

Un extraordinario estudio de caracteres femeninos a lo largo de un asombroso relato en el que se mezclan el género de misterio y el reportaje de sucesos. Ruth Rendell firma como Barbara Vine sus obras psicológicamente más ambiciosas, y esta es, sin duda, una de ellas.

Asta and her husband Rasmus have come to east London from Denmark with their two sons. With Rasmus constantly away on business, Asta keeps loneliness and isolation at bay by writing her diary. These diaries reveal themselves to be more than a journal, for they seem to hold the key to an unsolved murder.

In the long hot summer of 1976, a group of young people are camping in Wyvis Hall. 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. In short, they exist. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and child are discovered in the Halls animal cemetery.

As the two women share secrets, Jenny is intrigued by the relics of a long-ago love affair, and gradually pieces together an account of a shocking tragedy.

Barbara Vine es el seudónimo que emplea la archipopular reina del suspense Ruth Rendell cuando, como en este caso, aborda un tipo de narraciones más introspectivas y alejadas de las convenciones del genero policiaco. La accion transcurre una vez mas en el claustrofobico mundo de la Inglaterra victoriana, en torno a la figura de un famoso hematologo del siglo XIX, medico personal de la reina Victoria, sobre cuya biografia decide investigar su biznieto, lord Nanther. Sus pesquisas desvelan terribles secretos que caracterizan al antepasado como un hombre sin escrupulos, dado a las maquinaciones y de turbia vida sexual. Aquejado de hemofilia, no dudara en emplear a sus propios hijos, aquejados del mismo mal, para investigar la enfermedad. Una historia solida, sombria, excelentemente documentada y con unos personajes de gran densidad psicologica.

Yet reading between the lines of Henry's medical essays and diary, Martin begins to suspect that his great-grandfather was less than candid about both his life and work. What was he trying to conceal? Were the tragedies of his family life more than mere accidents? And what implications does it have for Martin, the blood doctor's descendant?

Clodagh, una joven provinciana que padece claustrofobia, se traslada a estudiar a Londres. Comienza viviendo en un semisótano del barrio de Maida Vale propiedad de un familiar lejano, un rígido profesor universitario casado con una antigua actriz de series de television. La relacion con sus caseros no es facil, pero entonces conoce a Silver, un extraño joven que vive con un par de amigos y cuya aficion -casi razon de vivir- es merodear por los tejados de Londres. Clodagh se une al grupo, y un dia, desde las alturas, a traves de una ventana, todos ellos son testigos de una escena que maracara sus vidas. Saltamontes es una novela de Londres. La ciudad, escenario y protagonista, crea la atmosfera y al tiempo penetra e informa la vida de sus pobladores, en una simbiosis rica y atractiva que reafirma la singularidad de una de las escritoras inglesas mas leidas de la actualidad.

This is a story of a doctor who traces hemophilia in his family. It's a fascinating tale with a shocking ending. I liked it a lot.

Suspense como el de sus mejores relatos policiales, a la vez que espléndido retrato de una juventud que aborda la vida desde una singular perspectiva: trepando y corriendo por los tejados de una ciudad de Londres inédita. Soledad juvenil, ansias de vivir, misterio y fatalidad.

La gran autora de suspense Ruth Rendell tiene en un seudónimo de B.V. a una inusual creadora de enigmas psicológicos y sentimentales. Con la innegable pericia de sus mejores aciertos policiales, la joven Sarah, embarcada en descubrir la verdadera personalidad de su difunto padre, lleva adelante un sorprendente ejercicio de indagacion. Sobre lo inaudito de la naturaleza humana.