Okay, so this is supposed to be Ruth Rendell's first crime mystery? For a first, it is very good! I didn't see the end coming, I was suspecting someone else all along. And that is, at the same time, also what didn't go so well with the story in my opinion. I mean, it's good that the author makes you suspect the wrong person, but she pushed the reader a little too hard in my opinion which made me lose interest in the story at one point. It then came back later on with all the twists that were discovered, but still... What I did like very much was the slow pace of a classic British crime story though.