Brought Down by Scandal ; in Her Latest Foray into Criminal Psychology Ruth Rendell Wreaks Havoc on the Well-Planned Career of an Ambitious Young Tory MPBOOK OF THE WEEK

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The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine(Viking, [pounds]18.99 )

WHAT would it take to make a selfish, posh, lustful and ambitious Tory MP into a nicer man? Ruth Rendell has a pretty good idea.

The Birthday Present is the 13th novel Rendell has published under the name of Barbara Vine (her own middle name and her grandmother's maiden name), beginning with A Dark-Adapted Eye, back in 1986. These novels have always been more complex than those published under her own name, often reaching back a long way into the past to uncover crime and guilt that can never be escaped or expiated. Many of them also use London settings powerfully, exposing the way that completely …