Adam and Eve and Pinch Me
Ruth Rendell
Paperback
(Hutchinson, March 15, 2001)
ADAM AND EVE AND PINCH ME 'Ghosts is stories are grey, like the people in black and white television, or else see-through, but this one had short dark hair and a brown neck and a black leather jacket. Minty didn't have to see its face to know it was her late fiance, Jock.' Jock Lewis was supposed to have died in the Paddington train crash. Minty had received a letter from Great Western. But, curiously, the police hadn't been in touch. And Jock had gone off with all her savings. Then there was Zillah. She had been married to a man called Jerry Leach. She had also received a letter from the railway company that said her husband was dead. She didn't really believe the story, but chose not to mention her doubts to James Melcombe - Smith, an up-and-coming Conservative MP, who was proposing a marriage of convenience... Fiona was a successful banker. Jeff Leigh had appeared on the scene before that terrible rail crash in August. Although he never seemed to be in work and borrowed money from her, she loved him. There were other women too, unknown to each other, who had relationships with a dark-haired man, who, after a little while, would disappear completely from their lives. Jock's ghost reappeared to Minty at home, at work, in the cinema. He even touched her. Minty started to carry a knife. If he wasn't made of shadows, would he bleed?