Forgotten Book - The Players and the Game

I first read JulianSymons' 1972  novel The Players and theGame as a break from A Level exams revision shortly after it first appeared. Iwas a huge Symons fan then – as I still am – and I really enjoyed the book. Awelcome distraction which did me a lot of good at the time, despite its grimsubject matter. So I wondered how well it would stand up to re-reading.
The answer was –extremely well. I now knew the trick solution, but this time had the chance toadmire how Symons concealed it from the reader. This is a book influenced bytrue crimes – notably the Moors Murders – where two people combine to wreakhomicidal mayhem. I'm one of the many who have more recently written such astory, but few of us have matched Symons' skill.
The book opens with anextract from a journal written by a mentally disturbed man who confuses himselfwith Count Dracula/Bela Lugosi, and meets a woman who sees herself as BonnieParker. The action then switches to a husband and wife buying a house; PaulVane is a personnel manager who is moving to be nearer his work, but the  move proves to have disastrous consequences.
Two young women gomissing. One eventually turns up, but it soon becomes apparent that a serialkiller (or, rather, two serial killers) are on the loose. Symons shiftsviewpoint rapidly, introducing a good many characters, but he sketches themwith great clarity. Which man and which woman form the killer couple?
It's a really ingeniousstory, as clever as most Golden Age efforts, but it's worn really well, withonly a couple of aspects that seem dated. Symons explores the way that peoplewear masks to conceal their identities, and also provides a bleak picture of aman, Paul Vane, whose life falls apart. This is a really excellent mystery,much shorter than most present day serial killer stories and the better for it.I can't understand why it isn't more widely known.