Dangerous to Know

The Atlanta Journal & Constitution crowned Margaret Yorke "the queen of the British domestic thriller" after reviewing the veteran crime writer's superb study of malice among suburbanites, Criminal Damage. Now, Yorke's chilling ability to remove the mask of respectability to show us the brutal face beneath reasserts itself with delicious wickedness in her thirty-sixth suspense novel, Dangerous to Know. Deftly she pulls aside the lace curtains of middle-class living to reveal a dark portrait of a marriage. Riding her bicycle about Creddington in her worn sweater and tweed skirt, Hermione Brown looked as drab, brown, and common as a mouse. Actually she was doing something extraordinary - deceiving her husband, Walter, by secretly taking on two afternoon jobs cleaning houses. For twenty years she had lived in fear of Walter's rages, brutality, and harsh demands. Now, with her daughters grown, she was taking the first small step towards a different life. Getting away from Walter may be more difficult than Hermione supposes. Walter has a predilection not only for domestic tyranny, but for women with long, dark hair as well. In fact, Walter Brown has started stalking one such woman he glimpsed on the train home from work. Of course, no one, not the vicar, the neighbors, the town councilmen, nor Hermione herself suspect how dangerous Walter is to know. Slowly, his obsessions grow. Inexorably, he hatches a new scheme involving the woman on the train, his pathological needs - and his wife. And Margaret Yorke has some surprising revelations waiting for us. As Hermione's timid rebellion collides with Walter's twisted plot, the result may be a bang or a whimper ... or a blood-curdling surprise.