Ruth Rendell was a British crime writer, known for her Inspector Wexford novels, psychological crime fiction, and the novels she published under the name Barbara Vine.
Ruth Rendell
The Keys To the Street
Hutchinson, 1996.
The Outer Circle, so busy by day, was deserted at night and no single car was parked on its gleaming surface. The great terraces, palaces in woodland, slept heavily behind dark foliage, and though many of their eyes were shuttered, some were alive with orange light. Lamps were lit along the pavements as far as he could see in each direction. The spaces between them were filled with shiny darkness
Hob has arrived at Cumberland Gate where a dealer sells him cocaine; after snorting it in Park Village East he beats up a man in the Primrose Hill area. But there are worse things happening: a multiple murderer is impaling his victims on the park's spiked iron railings. The whole story takes place in the park and its immediate vicinity, described in guide book detail.