The Bridesmaid

A young man refurbishes suburban homes, lives with his mother and sister, becomes obsessed with a garden nymph statue and then dangerously infatuated with its living lookalike. This relationship is emotional, erotic and vampiric, with him as the victim * Guardian *Every sentence is appallingly, shockingly convincing … a memorably harrowing journey through sick and weak minds, written with a skill that makes it relentlessly gripping * The Times *To read her at her best - and The Bridesmaid is perhaps her best book - is like stepping on to a trundling country bus and feeling it turn into a roller coaster * Sunday Times *If Ruth Rendell were not slotted into the category of writer of mystery novels, she would have won the Booker long ago * Books of the Year, Evening Standard *Ruth Rendell, like all the great creators of crime fiction, keeps her pact with the reader. There’s a murder mystery, there are clues, there is a solution. It’s a very satisfying read * Giles Brandreth *

Ruth Rendell was an exceptional crime writer, and will be remembered as a legend in her own lifetime. Her groundbreaking debut novel, From Doon With Death, was first published in 1964 and introduced the reader to her enduring and popular detective, Inspector Reginald Wexford, who went on to feature in twenty-four of her subsequent novels.

With worldwide sales of approximately 20 million copies, Rendell was a regular Sunday Times bestseller. Her sixty bestselling novels include police procedurals, some of which have been successfully adapted for TV, stand-alone psychological mysteries, and a third strand of crime novels under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Very much abreast of her times, the Wexford books in particular often engaged with social or political issues close to her heart.

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. Her final novel, Dark Corners, was published in October 2015.

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