On Valentine's Day, four members of the Coverdale family were murdered in the space of fifteen minutes. Their housekeeper, Eunice Parchman, shot them one by one in the blue light of a televised performance of Don Giovanni. When the police arrest Miss Parchman two weeks later, they discover a second tragedy: the key to the Valentine's Day massacre, a private humiliation Eunice Parchman has guarded all her life.
A Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Special Edition
"Rendell writes with such elegance and restraint, with such literary voice and an insightful mind, that she transcends the mystery genre and achieves something almost sublime."-Los Angeles Times
"It will be an amazing achievement if [Rendell] ever writes a better book."- Daily Express (London)
"Ruth Rendell is the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world."- Time