Rendell writes better when she writes shorter.Most of her novels and short stories, for which she is justly acclaimed (she has won three Edgars as well as three Gold Daggers and one Diamond Dagger), have been minimalist works of suspense genius, the kind where you look around the room wonderingly when Rendell sinks in the shiv of surprise.

In this novel, Rendell has relaxed a great deal, spending pages on bits of business (for example, the current hero likes a particular kind of snack) that would have been swiftly dealt with in her earlier work.This is a novel that should have been a short story about a man who finds an envelope filled with money.He doesnt need ithes inherited his fathers wealth from a print shop in the Portobello Roadso he posts Found notices around the extensive Portobello street market.

This act, of course, leads to a series of encounters with other Londoners, some of them dangerous.Rendell fans want to read everything she writes, but this overpadded tale is not among her best work.