Ruth Rendell Mysteries

- Season 8

(1994)

When wealthy middle-aged divorcée Alice Fielding, marries a handsome younger man, her best friend Nesta, who has fallen on hard times, begins to resent her.

Alice is concerned at Nesta's sudden disappearance, particularly in view of veiled comments Nesta had made about a mysterious man friend. She traces Nesta's mail to a seedy hotel in Brighton, where she is told that Nesta has been and gone and that 'Mr. Drage' took her belongings. She is unconvinced and Andrew is annoyed by her apparent obsession but they reconcile and attend the opening of the by-pass. Further revelations about Nesta's hasty departure cause Alice to believe she was murdered and when Alice goes down with a virus she wonders if the killer is after her ...

Alice Fielding is shocked when her friend, Dr. Harry Blunden tells her that Nesta was having an affair with her husband Andrew. He vehemently denies it telling Alice he hated the woman and while she accepts his explanation, she is more convinced than ever that someone is trying to poison her. When she notices that the typewriter in Andrew's study is the one used to type the letters she received from Nesta, she believes Harry may have been on to something. As she runs out of the house in fear of her life, the killer takes charge of her leading to an inevitable ...

When she was a young girl on the island of Majorca Petra Summerton was traumatised by the events of the Summer when her beloved older brother Piers and his cousin Rosario, to whom he was getting married, disappeared. Now she is middle-aged Petra still finds it hard to get over the situation.

Petra is now happy with a man called Will Harvey but still wonders as to the fate of Piers. Then out of the blue he turns up along with his wife Rosario, but are they who they claim to be or is there a more sinister reason for their 'return', after all these years have gone by?