The obituaries for Gerald Candless were respectful. He had been, after all, an admired and popular writer, and his sudden death at his home in Devon was a loss to literature as well as to his family and friends. The trouble was, as his daughter Sarah soon discovered, that it seemed that her father had taken on a different identity that he wasn't Gerald Candless at all.

But if he wasn't Gerald Candless, who was he?

Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has won many awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger and two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America. She has also won the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.

Among Frances Barber's theatre roles are Marguerite in Camille (Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer), Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion, and touring as Sonia in Uncle Vanya – for which she won the TMA Regional Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has also appeared in a number of television productions, among them Rhodes, The Plastic Man, Real Women, Inspector Morse, The Ice House and Trial and Retribution.