Bean, who's been mugged in the park, swears revenge against his attacker and considers a spot of genteel blackmail on the side. The police start to find street people gruesomely impaled on the ornamental gates of the park.

But the menace soon takes on a sharper edge. At first the omens are only vaguely troubling, circling around the obsessions of Roman Ashton, a magazine editor sunk to life on the streets after losing his family to a freak accident old Leslie Bean, who can't forget his irregular relations with his late employers and Hob, who drifts through the park in a perpetual haze while he's waiting for his next fix. But there are already clouds Mary doesn't see on the horizon. Leo's as gentle and considerate, as sympathetic and loving, as Alistair was everything but, and in no time Mary's counting the hours between their decorous meetings.

Taking advantage of her house-sitting gig outside Regent's Park, Mary Jago gives Alistair Fowler his notice and as if by magic, a new romantic interest springs up: Leo Nash, the recipient of Mary's bone-marrow transplant, whom she's previously known only as Oliver. Joyce Carol Oates called Ruth Rendell 'one of the finest practitioners of her craft in the English-speaking world.' In New York Times Notable Book The Crocodile Bird, this three-time Edgar Award winner shows the talent that made her one of the best.A delicate London flower plucks up the courage to walk out on her abusive lover-and into a vintage Rendell nightmare. But she will soon find herself wondering how much like her mother she really is. Taking shelter with the groundskeeper, Liza delves into her own past, telling the story of her traumatic childhood as a way of finding a place for herself in this strange, terrifying new world. Alone in the world for the first time, terrified that her mother's murderous past may catch up with her, Liza does what she can to survive. Raised in her mother's shadow, Liza has never questioned that this is the way things must be-until the night the police come to call, and Liza flees into the darkness. For sixteen years, Eve has protected her daughter, Liza, from the corrupting influence of modern life, never letting her outside, hiding her from those who visit, and killing to keep her safe. Far from London, the isolated estate called Shrove House looms over the English countryside. A psychological thriller about an isolated young woman and her murderous mother from the New York Times –bestselling author of The Girl Next Door.

The crocodile bird ruth rendell review