To Fear a Painted Devil

To Fear a Painted Devil by Ruth Rendell was originally published in 1965. This was a re-read for me, having read it many years before. This author excelled at looking at crime and murder in a unique way. In this puzzler the angle that she chose to explore had more to do with motivation that who the culprit actually was.

The local doctor serves as the narrator for most of the book and we learn of a small neighbourhood with it’s nasty secrets and chatty gossips. At an evening party, Patrick Selby was stung by some wasps, and although he seemed fine, he was dead the next morning. Stories of murder were circulating but the doctor was sure that he wasn’t allergic to wasp stings or that anyone had tampered with him during the night. But as show more the rumours didn’t fade away, the doctor started to look more closely at the situation and he was able to put the pieces together.

To Fear A Painted Devil reads much like an English Cozy with it’s varied characters and rural setting. In this psychological murder mystery many characters may have had a motive to kill Patrick Selby but the fun is in reading about how the doctor uncovered the truth. show less

When my husband decided that he wanted to read Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series, I printed out her bibliography from Wikipedia, figuring that I probably had all, or almost all, of her work already. Turned out I was wrong - there’s only one Inspector Wexford that I don’t have, but there are quite a few stand-alone novels (and Barbara Vine ones) missing from my library. So I was happy to find several missing ones on a recent used bookstore run, including this, from 1965. It depicts life in a middle to upper-middle class village, where one man is discouraged from buying cyanide to kill some wasps and another man soon dies, after being swarmed by the insects. The local physician initially thinks it coincidence and accidental, show more but the more information he receives from others, the more uncertain he becomes….This being written so early in Ms. Rendell’s career, it is not as compelling a read as her later books, but even at this early date she already knows how to tell a tight story and how to individualize her characters through their histories and current lives. Some of the activities are strange to the modern reader, such as guests settling down quietly to listen to a classical record on the phonograph, but it’s still an entertaining read, though perhaps only for completists. Mildly recommended. show less

Tamsin and Patrick Selby have an unhappy marriage. Tamsin is a beautiful young woman just on the verge of turning 27. Her husband, who also happens to be her first cousin, is very controlling, down to dictating what kind of clothes his wife should wear (plain in subdued colours), whether she should wear makeup (she shouldn't) and how she is to keep the house (immaculate). They live in a beautiful house in the fictional housing development of Linchester, Nottinghamshire, and Tamsin has invited their neighbours to a get-together she's organized for her birthday. Patrick is rude to her and the guests throughout, and when he gets repeatedly stung by several wasps, no one is much chagrinned by his plight, nor when he is found dead the next show more day. The local doctor doesn't believe in foul play until some persistent gossiping leads him to investigate a little further to find out if there's any truth to claims that beautiful Tamsin had something to do with Patrick's death. There is an interesting sub-plot having to do with a painting of John the Baptist's head on a bloody platter and it's a good enough story, but none of the characters made much of an impression on me. show less

Ambientada en un barrio residencial de la clase media británica, "La estampa del diablo" disecciona un claustrofóbico vecindario preocupado sólo en conservar la posición social y guardar las apariencias. En ese ambiente presidido por los cotilleos y el qué dirán, se celebra la fiesta de cumpleaños de la bella y adinerada Tamsin Selby. A la mañana siguiente su esposo Patrick es hallado muerto en el lecho conyugal. A partir de aquí se inicia una investigación que pondrá al descubierto un entramado de relaciones adúlteras, intereses espurios y crímenes pasionales.

Probabilmente 30 anni fa mi sarebbe piaciuto tantissimo, adesso mi sembra un po' datato. Non è brutto, si legge, si passano due ore ma non mi ha preso in modo particolare.