When Stuart Font decides to throw a house-warming party in his new flat, he invites all the people in his building. The party will be one everyone remembers. But not for the right reasons. All the occupants of Lichfield House are about to experience a dramatic change in their lives.

In this psychological thriller, Ruth Rendell probes behind public facades to reveal private torment and distorted visions that change the way the world appears to normal human beings."

Dex works as a gardener for Dr Jefferson at his home on Hexam Place in Pimlico: an exclusive street of white-painted stucco Georgian houses inhabited by the rich, and serviced by the not so rich.

White-skinned, delicate Senta of the silver hair, who looked just like Flora. The passionate, fascinating Senta begged Philip to prove his love for her by killing someone.

This collection of long and short stories probes the patterns of everyday life to pinpoint the frailties, the desires of deception, and the guilty secrets of human beings. It ends with The Strawberry Tree, a novella-length tale of lost innocence set on the island of Majorca.

A collection of crime stories, including one which features Chief Inspector Reg Wexford. The title story concerns a hideous bookmark given to a writer by his attractive cleaning lady. If only she had given herself, instead of the copper peacock, she might have lived.

Mary Jago has donated her bone marrow to save the life of a complete stranger. Moving to the affluent edge of London's famous Regent's Park, Mary believes she has finally escaped the threat of violence. She never thought that one simple act of kindness could put her own life in mortal danger...

It's the middle of summer. On Cornish sea-fronts, happy children grip melting ice-creams. In the south of France, sunlight filters through leaves as families picnic in the shade. And in the fashionable resorts of the Mediterranean, the beautiful people sun themselves on picture-postcard beaches. And in those long, hot summer nights ... murder walks abroad. Away from familiar surroundings, and as the temperature rises, old grudges come to the surface, new hatreds reach boiling point - and clever minds start to make dangerous plans. These ten classic mysteries, from some of the finest crime...