From multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell, this is a strange, seductive and suspenseful psychological thriller with a cunning final twist that will get right under the skin. Perfect for fans of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon.'Rendell's psychological novels remain in a class of their own' -- Sunday Telegraph'It is ... her ability ... to tap into registers of feeling which range from the commonplace to the psychopathic. She is to be treasured.' -- Anita Brookner, Spectator'Ruth Rendell at her very best' -- ***** Reader review'Excellent story and brilliantly calculated from start to finish' -- ***** Reader review'Surprising and engrossing' -- ***** Reader review'A masterpiece' -- ***** Reader review******************************************************************************************************Jock Lewis died in the Paddington train crash. His fiancée Minty even received a letter from Great Western. But she never heard from the police, and Jock had left with all her savings.When a mysterious dark-haired man appears at Minty's home, at work, even in the cinema, she knows it must be Jock's ghost. But ghosts are grey and don't wear leather jackets...Five women, all unknown to each other, are the simultaneous unwilling victims of one man, a morally corrupt criminal who exploits them all and then suddenly, suspiciously, disappears.As this mystery man of shadows returns, and five women are haunted by a living nightmare, Minty begins to wonder... Can you kill a ghost?

'Adam and Eve and Pinch Me went down to the river to bathe; Adam and Eve were drowned. Who was saved?' This old nursery rhyme is a favourite of Jerry Leach (if that is the name he is using at the time), a handsome ne'er do well, who sponges off women. Five women, unknown to each other, are his willing victims. One he even married once and abandoned, while promising to marry another. But, with the cruel irony he would be the first to recognize in that nursery rhyme, Jerry, almost accidentally, becomes the victim of one of his female prey.