A Dark-Adapted Eye: A Novel of Suspense

Writing under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, Ruth Rendell departs from her famous detective team of Wexford and Burden to tell a gripping tale of family madness. Vera Hillyard is a domineering and possessive woman who strives for obsessive control over a malicious older son, a youngest son who is--or isn't--illegitimate, and her younger sister, Eden, who secretly seeks to escape Vera's grasp and instead provokes a murder. This winner of the 1986 Edgar Award for best mystery novel belongs to the genre of old murders reconsidered and the question of who did what to whom and why is teasingly left unresolved.

Ruth Rendell was born in London, England and spent some time as a journalist and managing director of a local newspaper before publishing her first novel From Doon with Death in 1964. She has also written mystery thrillers (such as A Judgement in Stone, 1977) and books of short stories. Books written under her pseudonym, Barbara Vine, include The House of Stairs (1988), Gallowglass (1990), and The Brimstone Wedding (1995). Many of her stories have now been filmed or televised, notably in the series The Ruth Rendell Mysteries. She received the Arts Council National Book Award for Genre Fiction in 1981 and the Grand Master Edgar Award-winner for Lifetime Achievement in 1997.