'A woman phoned to say she and her husband went to Paris for
the weekend, leaving their children with a - well, teen-sitter, I
suppose, got back last night to find the lot gone and naturally she
assumes they've all drowned.' There hadn't been
anything like this kind of rain in living memory. The River Brede
had burst its banks, and not a single house in the valley had
escaped flooding. Even where Wexford lived, higher up in
Kingsmarkham, the waters had nearly reached the mulberry tree in
his once immaculate garden. The Subaqua Task Force could find no
trace of Giles and Sophie Dade, let alone the woman who was keeping
them company, Joanna Troy. But Mrs Dade was convinced her children
were dead. This was an investigation which would call into question
many of Wexford's assumptions about the way people behaved,
including his own family . . .
Chief Inspector Wexford is Rendell's most enduring and best creation Daily Telegraph As usual, Rendell mirrors aspects of the case in the leading characters' personal lives and her cleverly understated writing bathes them and their actions in a glow of reality that sets her writing above that of her many imitators. Time Out As always with Ruth Rendell's intricately thought-out novels, nothing is as simple as it seems. Sunday Express Superb plotting and psychological insight make this another Rendell gripper Woman & Home Utterly absorbing Sunday Telegraph
