02604cam a2200373 i 4500 191002133 TxAuBib 20141205120000.0 140905s2014||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2014025230 9781476784328 hbk. 1476784329 hbk. TxAuBib rda Rendell, Ruth, 1930- The girl next door : a novel / Ruth Rendell. First Scribner hardcover edition. New York : Scribner, 2014. 272 pages ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier "Mystery novel about friendship, love, and aging. Synopsis: In the wanting months of the second World War, a group of children discover an earthen tunnel in their neighborhood. Throughout the summer of 1944--until one father forbids it--the subterranean space becomes their "secret garden," where the friends play games and tell stories. Six decades later, beneath a house on the same land, construction workers uncover a tin box containing two skeletal hands, one male and one female. As the discovery makes national news, the friends come together once again, to recall their days in the tunnel for the detective investigating the case. Is the truth buried among these aging friends and memories? This impromptu reunion causes long-simmering feelings to bubble to the surface. Mild-mannered Alan, stuck in a passionless marriage, begins flirting with Daphne, a glamorous widow who was once his teenage sweetheart. Michael, lonely after the death of his wife, considers contacting his estranged father, who sent Michael to live with an aunt after his mother vanished in 1944. Lewis begins remembering details about his Uncle James, an army private who once accompanied the Children into the tunnels, and who later disappeared. In THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, Rendell brilliantly shatters our assumptions about age, showing that the choices people make--and the emotions behind them--remain as potent in late life as they were in youth"-- Provided by publisher. 20141205. Friendship Fiction. Missing persons Fiction. Man-woman relationships Fiction. Older people Fiction. FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General. FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Traditional British. FICTION / General. Psychological fiction. England Fiction. Mystery fiction.