Tips and Resources From Your Barbara Vine Book Club Friends:

When Ruth Rendell decided to write under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, she chose not to keep it a secret. Instead, she said, “It was just a way of doing a different kind of book.” She wanted to write novels that were different from her mystery suspense thrillers and Inspector Wexford murder mysteries. She noted, “The characters are deeper, and they feature not so much murder as accidental death or societal pressures.” But she also went deeper into the “heads” of her criminal characters, creating chilling and thrilling stories. She revealed that she would always know when writing if the novel would be a Barbara novel or a Ruth novel. She had also thought the Vine books would be a “minor strand,” but they became as popular as her books penned under Ruth.