As I have stated elsewhere, I am a fan of Rendell's books although I have to tread warily with them as they are often extremely unsettling in a way different from most psychological thrillers. I had read this book many years ago and another Goodreads friend (have forgotten who) was mentioning Rendell so I pulled this one off my shelf for a reread. At the moment, I think that Tree of Hands is one of her best. It has all the twists and turns one expects from her: multiple plotlines and disparate characters who are strangers to one another equally at the mercy of some inescapable awful fate, neuroses, fixations and obsessions of all kinds. And yet, unlike some of her books where one can be hard-pressed to identify or sympathize with any of the characters, I found myself feeling pity for Barry, who seems like many many young men today - unskilled and rootless yet looking for love, trying to be good men and getting involved with people who devalue and emasculate them. I could also identify with and sympathize with Benet, the young writer, her grief and her choice- this book would be a heck of a choice for a book club. Does anyone know if this book has been filmed by BBC? It would be perfect as a movie.