The Water's Lovely

Can you bury a secret so deep that it will never resurface? A psychological story of relationships built on murderous lies and hidden secrets, from the world's best living mystery writer and author of crime thrillers including Thirteen Steps Down.

She and her mother would be climbing the stairs, following Heather's lead through the bedroom to what was on the other side, not a bathroom in the dream but a chamber floored and walled in marble. But as their love lives start to develop, someone is murdered along the way, and long buried suspicions re-emerge with potentially tragic results.

Can you bury a secret so deep that the truth will never surface? Multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell poses this question in this breath-taking, taut and tension-ridden psychological thriller. Fans of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon will not be disappointed!

'Probably the greatest living crime writer in the world' -- Ian Rankin
'Unequivocally the most brilliant mystery writer of our time. She magnificently triumphs in a style that is uniquely hers.' -- Patricia Cornwell
'Rendell coaxes her horrors along so seductively that all kinds of nastiness seems not only possible, but inevitable.' -- Literary Review
'The plot twists in this electrifying read each all the way to the last page.' -- Publishers Weekly
The suspense is genteel, but palpable... Rendell is in full control of her craft here.' -- Sunday Times
'Ruth Rendell at her best with an intriguing mix of personalities and a dark, disturbing, secret which finally, painfully, comes to the surface.' -- ***** Reader review
'I loved it!...I could not put it down and read it in a day.' -- ***** Reader review
'An engrossing tale of manipulation and misunderstanding' -- ***** Reader review

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'Weeks went by when Ismay never thought of it at all. Then something would bring it back or it would return in a dream.'

The dream always features a drowned person - and the dead man is Ismay's stepfather, Guy.

Nine years on, she and her sister, Heather, still live in the same house in Clapham. But it has been divided into two self-contained flats. Their mother lives upstairs with her sister, Pamela. And the bathroom, where Guy drowned, has been demolished.

Ismay and Heather get on well. They always have. They have never discussed the changes to the house, still less what had happened that August day. But as their love lives start to develop, someone is...