A Dark-Adapted Eye (1986)

If anyone can seamlessly blend past and present into a gripping and believable narrative, it's Barbara Vine. Like all the best Vine work, here she's like a mesmeratist - the slow burn of the story grips like a vice from the first chapter. The depth of characterisation, the skilful plotting, and the believable setting all make this a masterful story. If you've never read a Vine/Rendell book before, then here's the place to start.

© Koplowitz 2012 ( )

I didn't expect to like this book, although I knew it would be well-written from reading Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series. (Rendell writes some of her psychological suspense stand-alones as Barbara Vine, or did at one time; lately she seems to be using one name for everything.) However, I think it will probably be on my 10 Best List for older books for 2009. For one thing, it had two aspects that always draw me in -- it's set mostly in the past (written in the 1980s with the narrator looking back at events from the 1940s and 50s), and it deals extensively with family history. And what a dysfunctional family it is! Faith, the narrator, at the beginning of the book is being asked by a true-crime author for help in writing a book about her aunt, who was hanged for the murder of her sister (Faith's aunt also) in the early 50s. Faith experienced the events of the book first as a child and then as a university student; now, in late middle age, she examines old papers and photographs, talks with the few people still living who were involved and will speak with her, and finally reads the trial transcript. The personalities of the sisters and other family members are well delineated and form an ominous undertone in the story. Issues of social class are quite important in the plot. Rendell/Vine also emphasizes the effects a murder has on the family and community of the victim and perpetrator (in this case the same). Highly recommended and well deserving of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, which it won in 1987. ( )

If I were asked to recommend a book that would give someone a good idea of what life was like for many British people in the years during and after World War Two, I would give them A DARK-ADAPTED EYE. If I were asked to recommend a novel about old sins having long shadows, and family secrets, and the destructive power of love, I would give them A DARK-ADAPTED EYE. If I were asked to recommend a brilliantly conceived and executed mystery, or even just an exceptional "novel of psychological suspense," I would recommend A DARK-ADAPTED EYE.

This was the first novel by Ruth Rendell under her nom-de-plume, Barbara Vine - it signaled a departure from the other two kinds of novels she was known for at the time, her Chief Inspector Wexfords (police procedurals) and novels of psychological suspense such as A JUDGMENT IN STONE and THE TREE OF HANDS. It was also the first novel I read by her under either name. That was over 20 years ago, and my admiration for it only increases with each re-reading (which occur every 3 or 4 years or so).

Ruth Rendell is my favorite writer, period - well, except for Barbara Vine, that is.

6/18/12: Not feeling quite swept away by either of the two books I have going, I picked up A DARK-ADAPTED EYE again to re-read a chapter or two just to 'scout the territory,' so to speak. And before I knew it I'd read three, then four chapters. At such a point I guess I have to say that I'm 'officially' re-reading the book! It gets better with each re-reading, as do many of The Vines.

6/20: This one still gets five stars from me. Although most of the ratings for this book are in the three-to-five-star range, I'm mystified by the ones who rated it lower than that and found it boring. The word that best describes this book is 'masterful' and it very much sets the template for several of the Vines that have followed. ( )

This came in a little below my very high expectations. It is well constructed, well told, but never has you completely thrilled or gives you the shiver of everything coming together perfectly like Ruth Rendell's Judgment in Stone gives.

A Dark-Adapted Eye begins with the narrator remembering the execution by hanging of her aunt for the murder of her other aunt. It then traces her attempts, many years later and to some degree prompted by a writer's inquiry, of the events leading up to it. This unravels layer after layer of an increasingly twisted family history that ultimately leaves one core mystery unexplained. Along the way, it is an interesting description of changing English mores. ( )

Faith Severn is approached by a journalist for information about her Aunt Vera, who was convicted and hanged 30 years ago for murder. What follows are Faith's and other family members' memories of Vera and her family and neighbors and details of the years leading up to the murder. I guessed the who and some of the why partway through the book, but Vine/Rendell is such an amazing writer and I was so thoroughly taken in by the characters and there were still a few twists and turns that it wasn't an issue. She also left enough loose threads hanging at the end to keep me thinking about the book long after I had turned the last page. ( )