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Loading... Thirteen Steps Down: A Novelby Ruth Rendell
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Inspector Wexford doesn't appear in this book which takes place in a multiracial London neighborhood. Characters include a trio of old ladies, a black supermodel, a fortunetelling fitness center owner, and recent immigrants and second generation Britishers from Africa, India, Bosnia, Iraq, and maybe other places I've forgotten.Their quirky behavior is sometimes amusing or quaintly odd but that can't obscure the fact that this is still a story of obsession and murder. (  ) edecklund | Jul 15, 2009 |  Inspector Wexford doesn't appear in this book which takes place in a multiracial London neighborhood. Characters include a trio of old ladies, a black supermodel, a fortunetelling fitness center owner, and recent immigrants and second generation Britishers from Africa, India, Bosnia, Iraq, and maybe other places I've forgotten.Their quirky behavior is sometimes amusing or quaintly odd but that can't obscure the fact that this is still a story of obsession and murder. ( ) dw0rd | Jul 15, 2009 | If only Hitchcock were alive to make this into a movie! Several times during the reading of this fine mystery the film "Frenzy" came to mind. The novel is wonderfully imagined, going deep into the recesses of the killer's mind via his internal monologue. Set in London and full of quirky characters, this mystery is also a comment on the narcissistic times we live in and how that narcissism manifests itself in a killer abused by his stepfather while his mother stood mutely by; and in a lovely model, who, through her love-filled upbringing, is only marginally affected by the narcissistic trappings of a surface and celebrity-obsessed culture, but whose character remains, in the end, unaffected by it. This book is much creepier than those carrying the byline Ruth Rendell; it is more in line with those that carry the byline Barbara Vine with its gothic trappings and touches of horror. One of her best. (  ) PsibrReadHead | Jul 5, 2009 | Mix, superstitious about the number thirteen, "accidentally" kills a woman, and falls deeper into his own fantasy life as he tries to cover things up. Interesting how all of the characters, Mix, his elderly recluse landlady Gwendolyn, and Narissa herself, have detailed fantasy lives, and all delude themselves in some way. Set in London, and I, of course, loved the accents. (  ) kayceel | Mar 31, 2009 | The mixture of events and characters is wonderful as they weave back and forth to form an intricate fabric of happenings. It was almost like building a house of cards that falls apart in a little series of endings. Ruth Rendell writes absorbing thrillers that move right along---- she knows exactly where she is going as she writes toward the end she has in mind, pulling readers right along, providing little surprises with what happens next every time. ( ) nyiper | Jan 18, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0770429610, Mass Market Paperback)From the multi-award-winning author of The Babes in the Wood and The Rottweiler, a chilling new novel about obsession, superstition, and violence, set in Rendell’s darkly atmospheric London.Mix Cellini (which he pronounces with an ‘S’ rather than a ‘C’) is superstitious about the number 13. In musty old St. Blaise House, where he is the lodger, there are thirteen steps down to the landing below his rooms, which he keeps spick and span. His elderly landlady, Gwendolen Chawcer, was born in St. Blaise House, and lives her life almost exclusively through her library of books, so cannot see the decay and neglect around her. The Notting Hill neighbourhood has changed radically over the last fifty years, and 10 Rillington Place, where the notorious John Christie committed a series of foul murders, has been torn down. Mix is obsessed with the life of Christie and his small library is composed entirely of books on the subject. He has also developed a passion for a beautiful model who lives nearby — a woman who would not look at him twice. Both landlady and lodger inhabit weird worlds of their own. But when reality intrudes into Mix’s life, a long pent-up violence explodes. (retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:07:01 -0500) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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