The chimney sweeper's boy

By Barbara Vine. Penguin Classics, 2008.

Why bestselling novelist Gerald Candless assumed a new identity years before his marriage and the birth of his two daughters isn't revealed until the last chapters of the book, but the effect of his deception on his family drives this story. The search for the origins of a child is themed throughout. In Gerald's wife, Ursula, and his daughters, Hope and Sarah, Vine [Ruth Rendell] has created three complex women and in Gerald, an equally complicated and compelling man. Each chapter is headed by an extract from one of Gerald Candless' fictional novels and Gerald's mystery is wrapped around a forgotten murder.

I loved this book – every word. It deserves to be a penguin classic!!

- Wendy