Rendell, Ruth. 13 steps down. New York: Crown Publishers, 2004. ISBN 1-4000-9842-4.

Summary: A diffident, elderly woman who fantasizes about the lost love of her youth takes in, as a boarder, a young man whose superstitions and obsessive interest in a serial murderer who flourished fifty years ago gradually cause him to lose touch with social reality. The boarder descends into psychopathy so gradually and so plausibly that his ultimate breakdown verges on anticlimax (in comparison to the spectacularly ironic crackups in some of Rendell's other books). Skillful plotting and beautiful writing.