The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine - a gripping, psychological thriller packed with menace

Intensely imagined, fearful and satisfying' Sunday Times

Tory MP Ivor Tesham has unconventional tastes. And in bored housewife Hebe Furnal he finds someone to share and enact his sexual fantasies. However, one day it all goes terribly wrong. Ivor plans a special liaison for Hebe's birthday - a daring sexual adventure. But dangerous games have unforeseen costs and consequences. And when there is an accidental death, scandal and ruin cannot be far behind . . .

How long can a secret stay a secret?
How long will friends protect a reputation?
And how long before guilt catches up with you?

'The pre-eminent genius of the psychological thriller' Herald

'Gripping, compelling' Mail on Sunday

'Vintage Vine' Literary Review

If you like P.D. James, Ian Rankin and Scott Turow, you will love The Bithday Present by Barbara Vine.

Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has written fifteen novels using this pseudonym, including A Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet which both won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Her other books include: A Dark Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs; Gallowglass; Asta's Book; No Night Is Too Long; In the Time of His Prosperity; The Brimstone Wedding; The Chimney Sweeper's Boy; Grasshopper; The Blood Doctor; The Minotaur; The Birthday Present and The Child's Child.

The Rendell/Vine partnership has for years been producing consistently better work than most Booker winners put together * Ian Rankin *
Barbara Vine is Ruth Rendell letting rip * Daily Telegraph *
A superb and original writer * Amanda Craig, Express *
Slick * Financial Times *
Again a great read from a master of the story-telling process * Irish Times *
Packed with menace and the threat of exposure. One of Rendell's most complex plots. * The Independent *
Her Barbara Vine novels allow [Ruth Rendell] to retain her title as Britain's pre-eminent psychological thriller. A suspenseful and chilling tale * The Observer *
Characters are intensely imagined and far from the usual uncomplicated stereotypes of victims and perpetrators. An experience that is both fearful and satisfying * The Sunday Times *
A strong creation * Telegraph.co.uk *
Riveting and only too plausible account of the downfall of a politician. Brilliant narrative voice. An unsurpassed portrait of a character suffering from low self-esteem, mild paranoia and gradual mental deterioration. * The Daily Mail *

Barbara Vine was the pen-name of Ruth Rendell, and Viking published all of her books under that name.

Rendell was an exceptional crime writer, with worldwide sales of approximately 20 million copies, and regular Sunday Times bestsellers.

Rendell won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with A Demon in My View, a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986, and the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990. In 2013 she was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.

Ruth Rendell died in May 2015.