A Fatal Inversion is a 1987 novel by Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell

Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an English crime writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....

, written under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. The novel won the Crime Writers' Association

Crime Writers' Association

The Crime Writers Association is a writers' association in the United Kingdom. Founded by John Creasey in 1953, it is currently chaired by Peter James and claims 450+ members....

 Gold Dagger

Gold Dagger

The Gold Dagger Award was an award given annually by the Crime Writers' Association for the best crime novel of the year.For its first five years, the organization's top honor was known as the Crossed Red Herring Award....

 in that year and, in 1987, was also shortlisted for the Dagger of Daggers

Dagger of Daggers

The Dagger of Daggers was a special award given in 2005 by the Crime Writers' Association to celebrate its 50th anniversary. All books that had previously won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year were eligible, and the purpose was to select "the best of the best"...

, a special award to select the best Gold Dagger winner of the award's 50 year history.

Plot summary

In the hot summer of 1976, a group of young people are camping in Wyvis Hall. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and child are discovered in the Hall's animal cemetery. Which woman? Whose child?

Adaptation

The BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 adapted the novel for television in 1992. The series starred Jeremy Northam

Jeremy Northam

Jeremy Philip Northam is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Ivor Novello in the 2001 film Gosford Park, as Dean Martin in the 2002 television movie Martin and Lewis, and as Thomas More on the Showtime series The Tudors...

 and Douglas Hodge

Douglas Hodge

Douglas Hodge is an English actor, director, and musician who trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.Hodge is a council member of the National Youth Theatre for whom, in 1989, he co-wrote Pacha Mama's Blessing about the Amazon rain forests staged at the Almeida...

.