The Blood Doctor

This novel is about ambition and obsession, but primarily about blood - both in its metaphysical and its physical sense. Lord Nanther is writing a biography of his great-grandfather, physician to Queen Victoria and expert in blood diseases, when he uncovers a horrifying secret.

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The Blood Doctor by Barbara Vine - a crime masterpiece about ambition, obsession and bad blood

'An outstandingly original book' Sunday Times

The current Lord Nanther, experiencing the reform of the House of Lords, embarks on a biography of his great-grandfather, the first Lord Nanther, favoured physician to Queen Victoria, expert on blood diseases and particularly the royal disease of haemophilia. What he uncovers begins to horrify him as he realizes that Nanther died a guilty man - carrying a horrific secret to the grave.

Weaving effortlessly between past and present, public life and private life, The Blood Doctoris a superbly satisfying novel that will be adored by readers of P.D. James, Ian Rankin and Scott Turow.

'A magnificent novel' Daily Mail

'Intriguing and absorbing and wholly satisfying' Spectator
'Plotted with a jeweller's intricacy and ominous to the final sentence' Sunday Telegraph

Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has written fifteen novels using this pseudonym, including A Fatal Inversion and King Solomon's Carpet which both won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award. Her other books include: A Dark Adapted Eye; The House of Stairs; Gallowglass; Asta's Book; No Night Is Too Long; In the Time of His Prosperity; The Brimstone Wedding; The Chimney Sweeper's Boy; Grasshopper; The Blood Doctor; The Minotaur; The Birthday Present and The Child's Child.