A Dark-Adapted Eye Audiobook By Barbara Vine cover art

A Dark-Adapted Eye

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

A Dark-Adapted Eye

By: Barbara Vine
Narrated by: Harriet Walter
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $21.47

Buy for $21.47

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

Like most families, they had their secrets...

...and they hid them under a genteelly respectable veneer. No onlooker would guess that prim Vera Hillyard and her beautiful, adored younger sister, Eden, were locked in a dark and bitter combat over one of those secrets. England in the '50s was not kind to women who erred, so they had to use every means necessary to keep the truth hidden behind closed doors - even murder.

©1986 Kingsmarkham Enterprises Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Amateur Sleuths Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Mystery Private Investigators Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Detective
Complex Characters • Psychological Depth • Excellent Writing • Intriguing Mystery • Vivid Descriptions
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
Classic British mystery with characters to love and love to hate! The mystery unfolds to the reader through the eyes of the intrepid narrator...many twists and turns and the sense of place and time are outstanding!

Amazing Masterpiece Theatre miniseries, book is even better

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I bought this on the basis of audible reviews and was not disappointed. This is not an edge-of-your-seat mystery. It unfolds slowly and moves deeper and deeper into the characters, their histories and their motivations. It is beautifully narrated by Harriet Walter. If you're looking for something to lose yourself in and spend some time with, I recommend it.

Well-written, absorbing psychological mystery

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I found the beginning of this book boring but I stayed the course and glad I did.

Keep Going

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Family history containing murder. Only at the end does it become clear who was murderer. The uncertainty of the why: craziness or child taking and that question is left to the reader’s imagination. It is a story of the English countryside in the World War Two era.

Family history containing murder

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This has long been one of my favorite books. I've read it many times and recommended it to many other people. But it has been a few years since I last read it, and the narration, which I listened to while driving to and from NYC is wonderfully excellent.

This book requires a lot of thought, and is a perfect match for the audio format. Having the extra time to really appreciate the subtleties, mysteries, and deep character development is the strength of this format. You'd miss much of this when only reading. The narrator is top knotch, nailing the nuances and exploring the maturation of the main character over time. I can't recommend this one enough.

Even better in audio form

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
One of my favorite novels of all time. The writing is superb and the chosen narrator is as well. Chills and shivers are no better delivered by situations such as those that can be imagined as real, that are in a sense no more than everyday tragedies. The author also imparts a wonderful sense of time and place. Just read it!

Top drawer psychological novel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is more an interesting and complicated look at the psychological workings of a family divided than it is a mystery.......though there are and remain several mysterious parts to the whole. It takes a while to get into the story, but as it continually unrolls it is more and more intriguing, drawing the listener deeper and deeper into the family machinations. The continuing family revelations experienced by the protagonist make sense of the title....A "Dark Adapted Eye" can see things that were formerly hidden in the darkness.

fascinating family intrigue

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
My first Barbara Vine novel. She also writes under the name Ruth Rendell. I loved it. Beautifully written, some of the best narration In the 100 audible books I have listened to. I'm thrilled to have a new author whose works I can explore.

Terrific

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Depiction of a fascinating, tragic. tale that could probably only have happened at that time and place. In 1940s England-- with a description of place and character as perfect in each detail as. ever done.
The author here is at the height of her power-- which is saying a lot!

Best of Ruth R endell's (Vines) novels

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting but very wordy and length not justified by plot. Hard to keep all characters and their relationships straight.

Too long and too detailed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews