Blamed by her parents for the tragic death of a friend, Clodagh has been banished from their home in the countryside to a dingy basement flat and a meaningless existence in the city. Then she meets the inhabitants of the top floor of 15 Russia Road. Charismatic Silver, brutal Jonny, paranoid Liv and exotic Wim range across a London of roofs, eaves and ledges, unseen by the ordinary inhabitants, thrilling in the freedom and danger. Clodagh, haunted for two years by the accident on the pylon, finds that running the roofs with these fascinating misfits brings her back to life, but it seems that tragedy and misfortune may not be done with her yet...

'Full of twists, turns, coincidences and surprises... a rich and rewarding read' Simon Brett, Daily Mail

'She is a mistress of unease, drawing her readers into situations of pleasurable tension... to her previous deft, dry skill of superb storytelling she now adds heat and warmth' Frances Fyfield, Sunday Times

'One of Barbara Vine's finest novels' Spectator

'Brilliantly on edge from start to finish... haunting, thrilling and original' Literary Review

Barbara Vine is Ruth Rendell, the bestselling crime novelist, She bas written many novels, including The Lake of Darkness, The Killing Doll, The Tree of Hands, Live Flesh, Heartstones and The Veiled One. As Barbara Vine she is the author of A Dark-Adapted Eye, which received huge critical acclaim and won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award; A Fatal Inversion, winner of the 1987 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award; The House of Stairs, winner of the Angel Award for Fiction; Gallowglass; King Solomon's Carpet, winner of the 1991 Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award; Asta's Book, shortlisted for the 1993 Sunday Express Book of the Year Award; No Night is Too Long; The Brimstone Wedding; and The Chimney Sweeper's Boy. All of these are published in Penguin. Gallowglass, A Dark-Adapted Eye and A Fatal Inversion have all been the basis of successful BBC television series.

Ruth Rendell is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 1991 she was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger for a lifetime's achievement in crime writing. In 1997 she was created a life peer and rock the title Baroness Rendell of Babergh.