Barbara Vine es el seudónimo de la autora británica Ruth Rendell. Bajo este nombre, explora novelas de crimen psicológico que profundizan en complejas dinámicas familiares y las repercusiones de secretos y crímenes. Su escritura se distingue por una prosa elegante y agudas percepciones de la mente humana. Vine crea magistralmente tramas y personajes cautivadores, que reflejan los cambios sociales de las últimas cuatro décadas, incluyendo temas como la violencia doméstica y la evolución del estatus de la mujer.
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.