With her precise prose and realistic cast of characters, Ruth Rendell presents Inspector Wexford as he nears the end of his career. Only a few of the old guys are still working and a younger work force is coming on stream. A suspicious man from the past has stayed in Wexford's mind over many years. The possible serial murderer emerges again and Wexford is determined to find him quilty of murders. Tangled in the intrique is the odd behaviour of a Moslem teenager and her parents, who seem contempory but there are fears that a forced arranged marriage looms. However, considerably more than that looms.
