Barbara Vine is a nickname of Ruth Rendell.

          At her tall, elegant House of Stairs in London W11, Cosette lavished hospitality on a bohemian crowd of drifters and hangers-on, mostly careless young people dazed on life, love and drugs. Widowed, lonely and extremely rich, Cosette had been looking for a lover. But the others – what had they wanted? 

          "Vine has not only produced a quietly smouldering suspense novel but also presents an accurately atmospheric portrayal of London in the heady sixties. Literally unputdownable." – Time Out