A Fatal Inversion
By (Author) Barbara Vine
Penguin Books Ltd
Penguin Books Ltd
27th May 2009
7th May 2009
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
823.914
Paperback
320
Width 130mm, Height 198mm, Spine 20mm
221g
'Brilliant. Vine has the kind of near-Victorian narrative drive ...... 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. 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 Hall's animal cemetery. Which woman Whose child 'I defy anyone to guess the conclusion ...... the clues are cunningly planted, so that it seems one should have known all along. 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
'I defy anyone to guess the conclusion, but looking back, the clues are seen to be there, unobtrusively but cunningly planted, so that it seems one should have known all along. The curtain is drawn back to reveal rather than to surprise; a most satisfying end' Daily Telegraph 'An absolute winner, nimbly written with all the Dickensian virtues of vivid characterization, fine prose style and a cunningly devised plot that shifts and twists and keeps you on the edge of your chair' Daily Mail 'The story is brilliant, the ending a perfect bit of irony... Barbara Vine has the kind of near-Victorian narrative drive... that compels a reader to go on turning the pages' - Julian Symons, Sunday Times
Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. Viking have published her twelve previous novels, including A Dark Adapted Eye, which won the Crime Writer's association Gold Dagger Award, and more recently Grasshopper, The Blood Doctor and The Minotaur. Ruth Rendell sits in the house of Lords as a Labour peer. She lives in Maida Vale, London.