I'm not exactly sure what it is I liked about this small, densely packed novella. I find Rendell's emphasis on description has me skipping paragraphs at a time to find the next piece of action. Sure they're well crafted and 'literary' paragraphs but I've always found that style of writing a bit pretentious preferring the minimalist writing if the "Scandi noir" writers. But Rendell's does also craft a good plot and structures them well. Will be interesting to read more of her later works to see how she develops over time. ( )

A typical and typically fascinating Rendell suspense novel-this one about a lonely writer unable to write and fixating on a past affair which had tried to lure him into a moral area where he refused to travel. He is trying to cope with his current responsibilities, but his obsession render him incompetent and bad luck doesn't help. ( )

Maybe when it was written (1974) the story had more bite to surprise the reader, but in 2015 it doesn’t. Gray is a seriously pathetic dude and it’s hard to muster any sympathy for him. Of course he’s being set up and his innate dunderheadedness plays right into Drusilla's hands. The whole deal with the dog was just crazy and his relationship with his mother and her husband was plain weird. In the end, when the coma victim awakes to get him off the hook, I was a bit disappointed, after all Gray himself justified what happened to him and even thought he secretly wanted it to happen. D shouldn’t have gotten away with murder, but damn she didn’t really have to try hard, did she? ( )