''A rich, complex and beautifully crafted novel.'' —P. D. James



''Compulsively readable…a carefully devised plot unfolded with the most cunning art. Wilkie Collins and Dickens would have admired it.'' —Sunday Times



Like most families they had their secrets…and they hid them under a genteelly respectable veneer. No onlooker would guess that prim Vera Hillyard and her beautiful, adored younger sister, Eden, were locked in a dark and bitter combat over one of those secrets. England in the fifties was not kind to women who erred, so they had to use every means necessary to keep the truth hidden behind closed doors—even murder.



''Brilliantly plotted. Vine is not afraid to walk down the mean streets of the mind and can build up an almost tangible atmosphere of menace and unease.'' —Daily Telegraph



''Will linger in your memory long after you have closed the book. A first-rate novel.'' —Washington Post