Book Description

Three spellbinders from a New York Times–bestselling Edgar Award winner, “unequivocally the most brilliant mystery writer of our time” (Patricia Cornwell). This trio of Barbara Vine mysteries provides undisputable evidence that “no one surpasses Ruth Rendell when it comes to stories of obsession, instability, and malignant coincidence” (Stephen King). A Dark-Adapted Eye: Faith Severn never understood why her respectable aunt Vera snapped and murdered her own beloved sister. But thirty years after Vera is condemned and hanged, a true crime writer’s new investigation into the case is finally allowing Faith to see her family’s unspeakable history and its bygone tragedy in a chilling new light. An Edgar Award winner, this “rich, beautifully crafted novel” (P. D. James) is Ruth Rendell “at her formidable best” (The New York Times Book Review). The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy: When celebrated author Gerald Candless dies at his clifftop home in Devon, his daughter Sarah is commissioned to write his admiring biography—only to discover her father’s entire life was a lie. Now, Sarah fears that understanding all her father has hidden—and why—is the last thing she wants. A novel “about the power of taboos, transgressions, guilts, deceptions, horrors, [and] atonements” (Independent) from “the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world” (Time). The Brimstone Wedding: Mired in a loveless marriage and a troubled affair, Jenny Warner has only Stella Newland to confide in. A patient at the English nursing home where Jenny works, Stella is open to hearing all about Jenny’s life. Stella understands; she has secrets too. When she gives Jenny the key to her house, it unlocks a mystery about the horrifying consequences of love—and Stella is drawn into a “dark, hypnotic story of romantic obsession” (The New York Times Book Review).