Clodagh was nineteen when her parents packed her off to college and a relative's house in Maida Vale, two years after the death on the pylon. They blamed her for it, everyone did. It was hardly surprising that she fell into the arms of Silver. In his flat at the top of his parents' house he played host to a strange crew of young drop-outs whose pleasure was to range the rooftops. It was a happy, heady time until the moment when on a trek fifty feet above the street, they looked into a window and saw a scene that was to lead to tragedy.

Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She 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.

Among Emilia Fox's notable television roles are Nikki Alexander in Silent Witness, Mrs de Winter in Rebecca, Georgiana Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and Ann Devenish in Bright Hair. She has appeared in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and as Jane Seymour in Henry VIII. Theatrical roles have included Anya in The Cherry Orchard, Alison in Look Back in Anger and Madame de Tourvel in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Film credits include The Pianist.