Each night she tells him a little more about her life: her mother's obsession with Shrove House and her mysterious claim to it, her mother's aversion to the modern world and her fierce desire to shelter Liza from its depredations.

Liza, who has grown up completely sheltered from the outside world, finds refuge with a young drifter. Liza lived in the gatekeeper's cottage at Shrove House until the day the police took her mother away forever. Little by little, Liza begins to see the logic behind her mother's gruesome crimes, and must accept the possibility that she has inherited Eve's lust for murder.In The Crocodile Bird, Ruth Rendell weaves a mesmerizing story of the obsessive love between a mother and a daughter and its connection to a series of deaths near a remote English manor, magnificent in its hilltop isolation. When the police arrive on their doorstep, Eve throws her daughter into the real world, to protect her from the consequences of her own chilling crimes. Now, at sixteen, Liza is not the only one to discover the truth behind her mother's pathological violence, or the dead bodies. Her world reduced to four walls, there has only ever been enough room for two in their cocoon intruders enter at their peril, only to mysteriously disappear.

'Here is Ruth Rendell on such fantastic form that you'll want to stay up all night racing through to the end' - Daily Mail 'The most brilliant mystery novelist of our time' - Patricia Cornwell 'A powerful and absorbing narrative told with elegance and subtlety' - Daily Telegraph 'I just couldn't put it down'- ***** Reader review 'I was totally enthralled by this from start to finish'- ***** Reader review 'Great read with a twist at the end' - ***** Reader review 'A fascinating, compelling and powerful book' - ***** Reader review ****************************************************** Liza has never been allowed to set foot outside the secluded gatehouse in which she has always lived with her mother, Eve. Perfect for fans of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon. From multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell, this is a tense, taut and twisted psychological thriller about a dark mother-daughter relationship that will keep you hooked.

If murder is all you have ever known, can you resist the temptation to commit the ultimate act of violence? A gripping psychological novel about a twisted mother-daughter relationship, from the world's best mystery writer and author of bestselling crime thrillers, such as Thirteen Steps Down.

The crocodile bird ruth rendell review