One of the world’s most popular writers of mysteries and thrillers, Ruth Rendell (who also writes as Barbara Vine) tells a gripping story of one man’s rise and fall from grace. It’s late spring of 1990 and a love affair is flourishing: between Ivor Tesham, an ardent womanizer and rising star of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government, and Hebe Furnal, a stunning North London housewife stuck in a dull marriage. On the eve of her birthday, Tesham gives Hebe a present to remember: a man arranges for his unsuspecting, but otherwise willing, girlfriend to be snatched from the street, bound and gagged, and then delivered to him... Barbara Vine is a pen-name of Ruth Rendell. Her works have been translated into 14 languages and more than a million copies have been printed in English. She was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger for a lifetime’s achievement in crime writing.