Ruth Rendell

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I am not interested in reading Ruth Rendell’s Wexford novels. Perhaps that’s because I once saw a rather dreary adaptation on TV and was put off. I’m sure that this is unfair, but I’d much rather read one of the novels she writes under the name of Barbara Vine.There are, however, two particular books by Ruth Rendell which I have very much enjoyed - neither of which features the worthy Chief Inspector. In these novels, she displays the same skill in drawing character, and the same interest in the darker side of the mind, as her alter-ego Barbara Vine. The first, A Judgement In Stone (filmed not too long ago as La Cérémonie - yes, in French, just imagine!) is not a mystery, but the chilling story of Eunice Parchman, an illiterate who murders the family for whom she keeps house. It is a compelling account of the cause and bloody effect of exclusion.

The second is The Keys To The Street, a more recent work, is a masterly tale dealing with an odd group of characters living near to Regents Park in London. The first of these is Mary Jago, who has anonymously donated some of her bone marrow. Now the man she has helped would like to meet her. The story of each character is so fascinating that the reader’s eye is guaranteed to be off the ball when Rendell springs her surprise… An air of menace pervades the book - it’s far creepier than anything film students do with a video camera. Intentionally, that is.

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