In a gloomy cellar, the figure of a palely beautiful woman makes no move when the man advances on her from the shadows, puts his hands around her neck and strangles her. Two men rent flats in the same house and their paths rarely cross. Arthur Johnson is quiet, fifty and a bachelor. No-one knows of the dark lusts that bind Arthur to the pale lady in the cellar, that compel him to kill again and again. Anthony Johnson is a young student studying psychopathic tendencies, going to lectures and writing a thesis. His lover is trying to make up her mind whether she wants to stay with her husband or leave him to be with Anthony...

In 1976, this acclaimed novel by Ruth Rendell was the winner of the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award.

Ruth Rendell, who also writes under the name of Barbara Vine, has won many awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger and two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America. She has also won the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger. In 1996, she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.