When Joe was rescued from the path of a train by Sandor, the latter indicates that Joe’s life is now his to do with as he likes. Joe is easily convinced of this and when Sandor begins telling him the story of an aging Prince, a kidnapped Princess and the price of love, Joe sees how the fairy tale might play out in real life…."Gallowglass" is a fairly early novel from Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine, having been published in 1990, but she’s already very good in her psychological portraits of people and what makes them tick; recommended! ( )

Easily-led Joe gets drawn into Sandor's obsession with a beautiful ex-kidnap victim. Her sceptical protector is the new chauffeur looking after his young daughter following a divorce.

A cast of well-drawn socially-awkward lonely figures. ( )

I expected it to be better but it's quite good ( )

Really didn't like this one. It seemed to exist solely to provide a vehicle for the few outlandish character names Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell had not yet employed in one of her novels. ( )