Adam and Eve and Pinch Me went down to the river to batheAdam 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.'It is not only her rate of productivity which is startling. It is also her ability . to tap into registers of feeling which range from the commonplace to the psychopathic. She is to be treasured.'Anita Brookner, Spectator'Rendell is not only irresistible because of the brilliance of her descriptions of contemporary life and the sad truth of her characters. She is a great storyteller who knows how to make sure that the reader has to turn the pages out of a desperate need to find out what is going to happen next.'John Mortimer, Sunday Times'Unequalled ability to build and sustain suspense'Peter Guttridge, Observer