Grasshopper Vine, Barbara

A woman inherits a remote Suffolk house and discovers she's not alone — someone else believes it's theirs, and they're willing to kill for it. Ruth Rendell (writing as Barbara Vine) weaves a slow-burning psychological thriller where past and present collide, secrets rot in floorboards, and ordinary people do unspeakable things when property lines blur. The house itself becomes a character: crumbling, isolated, filled with the kind of silence that makes you hear too much. Vine excavates layers of obsession, class resentment, and the violence that festers when no one's watching. This is domestic noir at its most unsettling — less about the shock of murder than the creeping dread of realizing someone has been watching you for years. If you like Kate Atkinson's tangles of time or Sarah Waters' gothic unease, settle in with this.