Originally published in 1979, this grand tale is timeless and wonderfully ironic, as is Rendell’s strength. In this intricately plotted novel we meet ordinary people, like the harried and unhappy bank manager Alan Groombridge, his teller Joyce, and the two inept bank robbers who take them out of their doldrums for all time. The story progresses along two lines, which of course converge at the end, violently and unexpectedly. The facts of the matter, as interpreted by the police and press after the final scene, are not at all what really happened, and it is somehow satisfying to be in on the truth when these worthies are not.