|
|
| Ruth Rendell, The Rottweiler |
|
Although I have been disappointed by Rendell's
most recent works:
Adam
and Even and Pinch Me as well as the last Inspector Wexford mystery;
The
Babes in the Wood, I wanted to give a try to her latest:
The Rottweiler. Once again, alas, I was disappointed...
As in other
Rendell's novels, we follow several dysfunctional people: Inez, who
sells antiques in a shop in Marylebone, London, watches videos
starring her late husband when nobody is around. Her employee,
beautiful Zeinab, has a very strict father and a fiancé who
covers her with expensive jewelry; but is she really who she pretends she
is? Will, one of Inez tenants, looks like David Beckham but has the
mind of a ten years old. His aunt, Becky, is her only living
relative. She is torn between guilt and love of her independence.
Jeremy Quick is the perfect tenant: a girlfriend who is caring for
an ailing mother, a discreet manner, a habit of drinking his tea with Inez
every morning... But soon, Inez suspects that he too, like other
people around her, lie to her... When a serial killer nicknamed the Rottweiler and
targeting young
women strikes in the neighborhood, suspicion is soon directed to
the antique shop and its regular visitors...
The premises are interesting, but the novel
does not hold its promises. Rendell has managed to create some
interesting characters (Will, Zeinab), but she has been unable to produce a good story. I thought
there was no suspense whatsoever, and the serial killer (which we
know from early on, since Rendell's novels are rarely whodunits) was
particularly dull and the motive for his murders quite unbelievable.
Rendell's way of creating suspense is to make apparently
unconnected people connect in unusual ways. People who would have not
killed otherwise are lead to murder by circumstances and chance
meetings. Here most people are connected to each other in very
straightforward and predictable ways. It seems that Rendell has
lost, in her recent fiction, the ability to create the bizarre and the
disturbing out of the ordinary. Where has the Rendell of A Sight for
Sore Eyes or The Keys to the Street gone? I miss her...
My advice: read Rendell, she is one of the
best if not the best mystery writer, but read her older novels, and
read her novels published under her pseudonym; Barbara Vine. Those are
the best in my opinion...
Rating: 
© Discussing Books, 11/12/2004
|
|
|
|
| Further Readings |
As Ruth Rendell:
Rendell, Ruth (1965) To Fear a Painted Devil
Rendell, Ruth (1965) Vanity Dies Hard
Rendell, Ruth (1971)
One
Across, Two Down
Rendell, Ruth (1974)
The
Face of Trespass
Rendell, Ruth (1976)
A
Demon in my View
Rendell, Ruth (1977) A Judgement in Stone
Rendell, Ruth (1979)
Make
Death Love Me
Rendell, Ruth (1980) The Lake of Darkness
Rendell, Ruth (1982)
Master
of the Moor
Rendell, Ruth (1984)
The
Killing Doll
Rendell, Ruth (1984)
The
Tree of Hands
Rendell, Ruth (1986)
Live Flesh
Rendell, Ruth (1987)
Talking to Strange Men
Rendell, Ruth (1989)
The
Bridesmaid
Rendell, Ruth (1990)
Going Wrong
Rendell, Ruth (1993) The Crocodile Bird
Rendell, Ruth (1996) Blood Lines
Rendell, Ruth (1996)
The
Keys to the Street
Rendell, Ruth (1999)
A
Sight for Sore Eyes
Rendell, Ruth (2002) Adam and Eve and Pinch Me
Rendell,
Ruth (2004) The Rottweiler
Rendell,
Ruth (2005) Thirteen Steps Down
Rendell,
Ruth (2006) The Water's Lovely
Wexford mysteries:
Rendell, Ruth (1964)
From
Doon with Death
Rendell, Ruth (1967)
A New
Lease of Death
Rendell, Ruth (1967)
Wolf
to the Slaughter
Rendell, Ruth (1969)
The
Best Man to Die
Rendell, Ruth (1970)
A
Guilty Thing Surprised
Rendell, Ruth (1971)
No
More Dying Then
Rendell, Ruth (1972)
Murder
Being Once Done
Rendell, Ruth (1973)
Some
Lie and Some Die
Rendell, Ruth (1975)
Shake
Hands Forever
Rendell, Ruth (1978) A Sleeping Life
Rendell, Ruth (1981) Death Notes
Rendell, Ruth (1983)
Speaker of Mandarin
Rendell, Ruth (1985)
An
Unkindness of Ravens
Rendell, Ruth (1988)
The
Veiled One
Rendell, Ruth (1992)
Kissing the Gunner's Daughter
Rendell, Ruth (1995)
Simisola
Rendell, Ruth (1997)
Road Rage
Rendell, Ruth (1999) Harm Done
Rendell,
Ruth (2003) The Babes in the Wood
Rendell,
Ruth (2005)
End in Tears
Rendell,
Ruth (2007) Not in the Flesh
As Barbara Vine:
Vine, Barbara (1986) A Dark Adapted Eye
Vine, Barbara (1987)
A Fatal Inversion
Vine, Barbara (1988)
The House of Stairs
Vine, Barbara (1990) Gallowglass
Vine, Barbara (1991)
King Solomon's Carpet
Vine, Barbara (1993) Anna's Book
Vine, Barbara (1994)
No Night is Too Long
Vine, Barbara (1996) The Brimstone Wedding
Vine, Barbara (1998) The Chimney Sweeper's
Boy
Vine, Barbara (2000)
Grasshopper
Vine, Barbara (2002) The Blood Doctor
Vine, Barbara (2005) The Minotaur
|
|
|
Critiques