Minette Walters"s expert plotting and her ability to quickly bring a large cast of characters to life put her in the same arena as Ruth Rendell. A homeless man who called himself Billy Blake is found dead of starvation in the garage of an expensive home near London"s Thames, and it looks as though he might be a merchant banker who disappeared in 1988 with 10 million pounds. A magazine journalist named Michael Deacon is intrigued by the case and by the missing banker"s wife and soon finds that there are much darker overtones to both. Other Walters books in paperback include The Ice House, The Scold"s Bridle.