Talking to Strange Men

John Creevey has lost a lot in his life - his parents, his sister (murdered) and most recently his wife, who just left him to go back to the man she was going to marry until she was dumped at the last minute. He’s got his job running a gardening centre, a couple of casual friends and a hope that he can win his wife back, but mostly he’s just alone. When he stumbles across some coded messages sort of hidden in plain sight, he takes it as a sign that he should try to interpret them, wondering if they were from a violent gang, a drug ring, perhaps international spies - but the truth is far different than his imaginings, and the events he unknowingly sets into motion lead only to death….This is a stand-alone novel by Ruth Rendell from show more 1987, and as with all her work, the inner lives and psychological profiles of her characters are extremely well-drawn and very human. The plot is, also as always, quite involved and convoluted; the reader knows that something is going to happen, but not quite what it will be until nearly the end. I found the main characters to be really unappetizing, though, and so while I enjoyed her writing as much as I have ever done, this book left me somewhat angsty, a bit depressed. show less

It would have worked better if it had been confined to a short story. That's what this book needed - confinement. So much of it is taken up by very uninteresting goings on that when the end finally approaches the reader sighs with relief. John is a boring little man with no life and so of course these coded messages become an obsession; he's got nothing else to do. All of his scenes are either at his boring job at a garden center, him trying to crack the code or alternately pining for Jennifer or drinking with Mark who can only talk about himself. John loathes himself for putting up with him, but doesn't have enough vertebral column to tell him off. The dark, twisted psyche that Rendell is so good at depicting is absent and makes for show more dull reading.

The whole spy thing that John takes so seriously being actually a bunch of kids is pretty funny in an ironic sort of way. The seriousness with which they take the whole enterprise is fun at first; the coded messages, the secrecy, the rivalry, moles, defectors and double-agents. After a while though it's boring and essentially meaningless because there is no intent to harm in anything they do. Even when John slips in his message about Peter Moran, the kids' attention is benign which makes the ending pretty tame even though Moran ends up dead. John didn't intend for him to be harmed and is barely aware of his death before the end of the book. Of course he doesn't get what he wants and seeing Jennifer and Mark together pushes him into (of course, what else can we expect from this loser?) a failed suicide attempt.

I've always thought early Rendell was the best, but this one was a miss. Not enough evil, tension or action to work well as a novel. I've always admired her subtlety, but this one isn't subtle, it's boring. show less

I read the first chapter or so about five times before I fully understood what was going on. This is certainly a highly original idea - an abandoned husband manages to infiltrate the coded messages being sent between a group of boys playing a spy-game. Except it's a game they take very seriously indeed. I think that's it anyway. I found the spy ring side of things rather difficult to follow, and I would no doubt make a lousy spy. The adult characters were excellent, though. Top marks for originality, obscure character names and ideas for games the kids could play in the holidays!

Super dark, and a bit tangled. Child murderer plots turn my stomach. But Rendell doesn't seem to miss very much, there's some power to this story. Another solid portrait of a Bleak British Block.

This is the first Ruth Rendell I've read and I really enjoyed it. The plot is very clever and I really liked how the author managed to interweave two apparently separate stories. The characterization was also very well done. It's always great to find an author who combines suspense and mystery with compelling characterizations. There are many crime/mystery writers who are good at plotting and setting up puzzles, but are short on just about every other literary skill. Rendell is the whole package. I will definitely read some more of her works.

I'm not really sure what I thought of this "two stories that eventually intersect" story. On the one hand I couldn't follow nor was interested in the schoolboy spies story. On the other I was interested in the "hopelessly wants to get back with his ex-wife" story and the very bizarre revelations that came with it. There was definitely a build up of tension once the stories intersected and I'm very glad that one of those stories didn't go the way it could have as that would have been very hard to read. At the end of it all I felt slightly dissatisfied though I can't articulate why. Maybe it's because of all the descriptive passages that don't really add anything to the story or its mood.

I registered this book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14829516

A small group of private school boys are engaged in a spy game. It's fairly elaborate - there are two opposing groups, each with a leader and with "drop" locations, safe houses, and coded messages.

John Creevey, an adult suffering from his wife's departure, happens upon one of the drops and starts to copy the messages and try to decipher them. He becomes quite involved in the puzzle, and tries to figure out who the rival groups are. Street gangs? Drug lords? Actual spies?

John is obsessed, however, with getting wife Jennifer back. She has taken off with a former lover, boldly. This lover had left her almost at the altar yet she still wants him. John show more cannot understand it. He tries to find the key - what can he do to win her back?

Through an intersection of John's needs and the boys' spy game, something unexpected and unplanned happens. Was John too careless?

With Rendell you can never be sure of the outcome. She loves to develop complex characters whose motives may not be pure, or may just be muddied. This is a lovely representation of her brilliant mind. show less