Ruth Rendell: Thirteen Steps Down (UK 2005)

From the Publisher:
Mix Cellini is a man with two obsessions. The first is John Reginald Christie, the multiple murderer who was hanged in 1953. Mix is convinced that Christie was a genius, and he spends his time re-enacting Christie's crimes. His second obsession is Nerissa Nash, a beautiful model whom Mix has never met, but whom he believes is his destiny. Mix lives in a flat in a decaying Victorian house in Notting Hill, owned by Gwendolen Chawcer, an elderly and eccentric virgin who has lived there all her life. Gwendolen is also a woman with an obsession - she has spent fifty years waiting for the return of her lost love. When Mix's two worlds collide, the result is a terrifying explosion of violence.

Ruth Rendell: Thirteen Steps Down. Arrow, ISBN 0099474328 (July, 2005), 391 p., £6.99.