''A Fatal Inversion'' is a 1987 novel by

Ruth Rendell Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, (; 17 February 1930 – 2 May 2015) was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. Rendell is best known for creating Chief Inspector Wexford.The Oxford Companion ...

, written under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. The novel won the

Crime Writers' Association The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) is a specialist authors' organisation in the United Kingdom, most notable for its "Dagger" awards for the best crime writing of the year, and the Diamond Dagger awarded to an author for lifetime achievement. ...

Gold Dagger The CWA Gold Dagger is an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association of the United Kingdom since 1960 for the best crime novel of the year. From 1955 to 1959, the organization named their top honor as the Crossed Red Herring Award. ...

in that year and, in 1987, was also shortlisted for the Dagger of Daggers, a special award to select the best Gold Dagger winner of the award's 50-year history.

Plot summary

In the process of burying a beloved dog in the animal cemetery of Wyvis Hall, a beautiful Suffolk country house, the owner unearths the skeletons of a dead woman and baby. The horrific discovery challenges the buried memories and guilt of a small group of young people who, 10 years earlier, spent the broiling summer of 1976 in a self-indulgently irresponsible idyll at Wyvis Hall, unexpectedly inherited by one of their number. Slowly the facts emerge and the past catches up with them. But which woman is dead? And whose child?

Adaptations

The

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

adapted the novel for Radio 4 in 1991, and in three episodes for television in 1992 as the first novel to be adapted for '' The Barbara Vine Mysteries''. The series starred

Jeremy Northam Jeremy Philip Northam (born 1 December 1961) is an English actor. His film credits include '' The Net'' (1995), '' Emma'' (1996), '' An Ideal Husband'' (1999), '' Amistad'' (1997), ''The Winslow Boy'' (1999), ''Gosford Park'' (2001) and '' Eni ...

and

Douglas Hodge Douglas William Hodge (born 25 February 1960) is an English actor, director and musician. He has had an extensive career in theatre, as well as film and television where he has appeared in ''Robin Hood'' (2010), '' Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Retu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fatal Inversion, A 1987 British novels Novels by Ruth Rendell Works published under a pseudonym Novels set in Suffolk Viking Press books