3 1/2 stars, really. This Inspector Reg Wexford novel is a bit of a rambling read, with several crimes revolving around the abuse of women. Two women disappear for some days and then return, but is there a crime if both insist “no harm done”? Then a young girl disappears around the time a convicted pedophile is released and the community goes wild. Rendell is interested in exploring what communities will and won’t tolerate when harm is done to women. Does it matter that The Hide, a shelter for abused women and their children, is an open secret at the center of the neighborhood? And what about Fay Devenish, the next door neighbor, whose face is so often bruised and her hands cut? Bewildered by people’s inexplicably abusive behavior, Wexford believes the law—however imperfect—ought to be protection against their worst impulses. “It was as if a whole panorama of revelations, causes, consequences, and seemingly endless cruelty unrolled before his eyes… and what on earth was he going to do about it?” (238). Interestingly, in the end Rendell’s resolution of the various crimes demonstrates the real-life range of solutions to the worst of human nature.