Barbara Vine est le pseudonyme de l'auteur britannique Ruth Rendell. Sous ce nom, elle explore des romans policiers psychologiques qui plongent dans des dynamiques familiales complexes et les répercussions de secrets et de crimes. Son écriture se distingue par une prose élégante et des aperçus percutants de l'esprit humain. Vine crée magistralement des intrigues et des personnages captivants, reflétant les changements sociaux des quatre dernières décennies, y compris des thèmes tels que la violence domestique et l'évolution du statut des femmes.
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, what they are doing or how they are to live; they scavenge, steal and sell the family heirlooms. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and a child are discovered in the Hall's animal cemetery.
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.