Books like The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell

Set in London during the final years of World War II, The Girl Next Door follows a group of children who turn an earthen tunnel beneath their neighbourhood into a secret garden for games and stories. In 1944, a local father forbids its use, yet the tunnel remains a poignant memory. Over sixty years later, construction workers uncover a tin box containing two skeletal hands beneath a house on the same site. The discovery sparks national attention and forces the former friends to reconvene. Together they help a detective piece together the haunting story behind the bones, while each grapples with unresolved feelings from their past: Alan’s marital dissatisfaction, Daphne’s retirement life, Michael’s estranged family ties, and Lewis’s memories of an army private who vanished. Rendell uses the reunion to explore how the choices and emotions forged in youth echo in later life, revealing the enduring potency of memory and desire.

First publish date: 2014