The Last Girl

Ruth Rendell raved about this perfectly tuned debut thriller when it was first published in 1995, and it's not hard to see why: the story of a friendly neighborhood psychotic who takes a dangerous fancy to a new tenant in his London boarding house is very much in Rendell's grand tradition. Penelope Evans's ear for the self-deception of the emotionally deprived is so good that you'll find yourself cringing from the first page. Her protagonist Larry Mann tells us about his growing passion for quiet little Amanda Tyson, and as the story progresses we learn to what creepy lengths he is prepared to go to keep her near him.