A Dark-Adapted Eye
by Barbara Vine
Buy on AmazonThe first book Rendell wrote as Barbara Vine. A personal exploration into the past, searching for the truth that led Vera Hillyard to commit the violent murder for which she is hanged. The story unfolds slowly, painfully, full of secrets and lies. Dark, claustrophobic, and chilling.
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"Yes. There were two I liked. A Dark-Adapted Eye was the first one, and the second one was called A Fatal Inversion. I like Ruth Rendell very much as a writer, and I just found it amazing when she suddenly started writing under this new persona. And I thought the books had another level: it was as if she’d been holding back this extra skill. They were very different from the Ruth Rendells – and I just thought those first two were amazing… A greater depth. Because her early books – the early Wexford books – were very good, but fairly traditional police procedural whodunnits. Then some of the psycho-pathological ones like A Judgement in Stone were also very good and very creepy. But this seemed somehow a broader canvas, it seemed to involve more depth of character, and I thought it was remarkable that a good writer could suddenly get so much better."
The Best Whodunnits · fivebooks.com