The Girl Next Door (Rendell novel)

Plot and characters

During World War II, a group of children in Loughton, Essex, United Kingdom play in tunnels (in reality, the foundations of an uncompleted house) they discovered under a hill. In the present day they are re-united after the discovery of two hands in a tin box when the tunnels are dug up for construction work. The novel deals frankly with changes and interrelationships of the characters and social changes generally, over seven decades.

Critical reception

In a review in The Observer, it was noted that instead of focusing on the crime, the novel dealt with the lives of the now elderly people in the present.