Synopsis:
After a supremely sheltered childhood, a young woman finds herself without her mother for the first time in her life, and tells her new lover the story of the crime that led to her emancipation. Continue reading
Synopsis:
A woman haunted by the uncertain onset of a genetic disease sees a woman from her past, and struggles to fill in the gaps between truth and lies from a time in her life marked by violence and murder.
Review:
House of Stairs is yet another knockout from Barbara Vine, the British crime writer who pens the Inspector Wexford mysteries as Ruth Rendell. The tease here is that Vine isn’t going to reveal the identity of the murder victim until the final pages, and she pulls it off completely. The reveal is a tremendous shock, and Vine earns every ounce of it. Continue reading
Synopsis:
An illiterate housekeeper’s resentment of the privileged family she serves boils over into a murderous rage.
Review:
Judgement in Stone was turned into an incredible movie called La Ceremonie by Claude Chabrol, starring Sandrine Bonnaire as Eunice, the “stone” of the title, and the marvelous Isabelle Huppert as Joan, the local postmistress who fans the flames of Eunice’s anger. This is yet another case of a film adaptation that is truthful to the book, but that can also stand on its own. Continue reading
Synopsis:
An elderly woman’s recollections of a love that ended in tragedy shed new light on a married woman’s illicit affair.
Review:
Wordpress keeps eating this review, and I don’t have the energy to write it a third time. Suffice it to say that it’s very good, with great characters, wonderful postwar detail, and a riveting story.
Meanwhile, check out Sheila for a nice post about Margaret Atwood.
Synopsis:
A suicidal teen is rescued by a charismatic drifter with designs on a woman he calls “The Princess.”
Review:
Gallowglass has not been my favorite Vine (the alter ego of crime writer Ruth Rendell), but subpar Vine is still head and shoulders above most of what’s out there in the mystery genre. Where Vine succeeds best in this book is in depicting Joe’s thralldom to Sandor, the man who rescued him from jumping front of a train. An orphan raised by loveless foster parents, Joe has a need for love that approaches purity in its sexlessness. Joe calls himself the gallowglass, which means helper to the chief, but he’s actually the real princess in Sandor’s story–trapped in a tower, rescued and forever bonded to his savior–despite the contrary nature of Sandor’s treatment of him. Continue reading
Synopsis:
A con man, an obsessive-compulsive, and a closeted Member of Parliament become locked together by circumstance and lies. Continue reading
Synopsis:
When a true-crime writer comes to Faith Severn asking for corroboration of the details he’s unearthed about her murderess aunt, Faith’s reminiscences build a very different portrait of the family that has been both dear and alien to her over the years, casting new light on very old secrets.
Review:
I have read several books by Barbara Vine and her alter ego Ruth Rendell, and this is by far my favorite. She excels at characterization; none of her creations can be neatly encapsulated by the sort of paradox shorthand that so often passes for nuance. This book is no exception. The portrait of the extended Longley clan is shatteringly precise, as though it were a real history and not fiction. Continue reading
