PORTOBELLO by Ruth Rendell

The Portobello area of West London has a rich personality - vibrant, brilliant in colour, noisy, with graffiti that approach art, bizarre and splendid. An indefinable edge to it adds a spice of danger. There is nothing safe about Portobello...

Eugene Wren inherited an art gallery from his father near an arcade that now sells cashmere, handmade soaps and children's clothes. But he decided to move to a more upmarket site in Kensington Church Street. Eugene was 50, with prematurely white hair. He was perhaps too secretive for his own good. He also had an addictive personality. But he had cut back radically on his alcohol consumption and had given up cigarettes. Which was just as well, considering he was going out with a doctor.For all his good intentions, though, there was something he didn't want her to know about...

On a shopping trip one day, Eugene, quite by chance, came across an envelope containing money. He picked it up. For some reason, rather than report it to the police, he wrote a note and stuck it up on a lamppost near his house:

'Found in Chepstow Villas, a sum of money between 80 and 160 pounds. Anyone who has lost such a sum should apply to the phone number below.'

This note would link the lives of a number of very different people - each with their obsessions, problems, dreams and despairs. And through is all the hectic life of Portobello would bustle on.

Soft cover, overall good condition. Slight foxing.