Order of Barbara Vine Books

Barbara Vine is a pen name of English author Ruth Rendell (1930-2015), who wrote mystery/thriller novels under this pen name. Under any name, Rendell was known for her elegant prose and for her sharp insights into the human psyche. In addition to that, she conceived interesting plots and compelling characters. Rendell passed away in 2015 from a stroke.

Ruth Rendell debuted her Barbara Vine pen name in 1986 with the novel A Dark-Adapted Eye. She published 15 novels under this pseudonym, with the last being The Child’s Child in 2012. Below is a list of Barbara Vine’s books in order of when they were originally published:

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

If You Like Ruth Rendell Books, You’ll Love…

• Ruth Rendell
• Margaret Millar
• John Gregory Dunne

Barbara Vine Synopses: In A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine, Faith Severn has grown up with the dark cloud of murder looming over her family. Her aunt Vera Hillyard, a rigidly respectable woman, was convicted and hanged for the crime, but the reason for her desperate deed died with her. Thirty years later, a probing journalist pushes Faith to look back to the day when her aunt took knife in hand and walked into a child’s nursery.

Fatal Inversion is a standalone title by Barbara Vine. In the summer of 1976, a group of young people are camping in Wyvis Hall. Adam, Rufus, Shiva, Vivien and Zosie hardly ask why they are there, what they are doing or how they are to live; they scavenge, steal and sell the family heirlooms. In short, they exist. A decade later, the bodies of a woman and a child are discovered in the Hall’s animal cemetery. But who is the woman? And who is the child?