Thirteen Steps Down

By Ruth Rendell

This is another brilliant novel from the pen (or keyboard) of Ruth Rendell. A violent tale of fantasy lives, hatred, obsession, superstition, guilt and murder. It was so good I did not want to put it down. The only let down is that the ending is quite straightforward and not the usual Ruth Rendell ending with a twist.

St Blaise House, Notting Hill, London. When Michael “Mix” Cellini’s job brings him to London he deliberately finds a place to live near to what was once 10 Rillington Place, which is the house where long-dead serial killer John Reginald Christie lived. Christie was a doctor who not only performed abortions 50 years ago, but also killed the women he butchered and indulged in the act of necrophilia before he buried them. Among them was his own wife. Mix is obsessed with Christie and reads every book and snippet of information about him that he can get his hands on. Mix makes his living repairing and maintaining exercise equipment for his mostly female costumers with whom he also indulges in a little extracurricular recreation.

Gwendolen Chawcer is an 80-year-old spinster and Mix's landlady. She is the owner of the neglected and crumbling old Victorian house where Mix rents the attic space. Having led a rather sheltered life she rarely goes out, preferring the company of her many hundreds of books. Gwendolen hates Mix and the feeling is mutual.

Nevertheless, there are many similarities between Gwendolen's and Mix's personalities. They are truly a pretty unpleasant pair, little deserving of any sympathy. Both are natural loners, each living in their own private fantasy world, ill-mannered and neither sees anything wrong in using others for their own convenience. However, their backgrounds and upbringings were very different. Gwendolen had an over-protected and privileged upbringing, whereas Mix grew up with a loving, but domestically inept mother, and a violent step-father.

In his meticulously clean flat, so much in contrast to the rest of the dismal, eerie old house with its crumbling wallpaper, peeling paint and very out-of-date appliances, Mix divides his time between reading about Christie and inventing wild fantasies involving himself and Nerissa Nash, whose portrait takes pride of place on the living room wall.

Nerissa Nash is a supermodel who lives in the neighbourhood, and is as sweet and as she is naïve. Mix has a crush on Nerissa and so he begins to stalk her, secretly planning their 'future' together. In fact, Mix’s obsession with Nerissa pushes him over the line from a very neurotic young man to a dangerous psychopath.

Mix is superstitious and troubled by the number 13. There are thirteen stairs to climb between his landlady's part of the house and his own flat on the third floor and Nerissa's house number is also thirteen.

After following Nerissa to Shoshana’s Spa, a spa and fitness centre owned by the phoney and sadistic "psychic" Madame Shoshanna, Mix meets and starts dating the receptionist, Danila. When Danila speaks badly about Nerissa, Mix beats her to death in his flat and hides her body under the floorboards in one of the attic rooms.

Gwendolen has never been married. Her life was determined and controlled by her overbearing father, who lived to the ripe-old age of 94, thus never giving his daughter a chance to meet men. Despite her isolation and naiveté Gwendolen fell in love with the young doctor, Stephen Reeves, who cared for her father. But once her father died, she never heard from him again. However, when she reads the Daily Telegraph's announcement of the death of Stephen Reeves' wife, Eileen, fifty years later, she sets about trying to track him down.

The Dearly Departed

By Elinor Lipman

Hmmm… I do not know where to start with this one… I found the story very confusing with too many characters and a storyline that skipped from here to there in no time. It is not hilarious and funny, like some reviews have stated, but there are bits and pieces that will make you smile. On the positive side, it is an easy and quick read, it is entertaining although not very memorable, unfortunately.

The story begins when Sunny Batten returns to the small town of King George, New Hampshire, and to the ramshackle grey bungalow on the edge of the country club’s golf course where her mother, Margaret Batten, raised Sunny by herself. Her mother has just died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a freak accident with Margaret’s alleged fiancé, Miles Finn. While at the funeral, Sunny catches her first glimpse of Miles Finn’s son, Fletcher, and as Sunny and Fletcher sit together at the graveside it is difficult not to notice the resemblance between Sunny and Fletcher, both having the same kind of wispy, shiny, prematurely grey hair.

King George is full of surprises and for Sunny bitter memories of her childhood comes flooding back when seeing her high school golfing team mates (all boys) again. She is also embarrassed when discovering that her mother’s new midlife hobby had been acting. Home for the first time since high school, Sunny finds herself reassessing the place. She learns that her mother had blossomed from a divorced wallflower to a much-admired amateur actress in King George’s local theatre troupe, and thus the object of widespread affection. However, in spite of past grievances Sunny’s return to King George proves that one can go home again, and her grief segues into pleasant alliances with the townspeople, as Sunny becomes re-acquainted with Joey Loach, who spent most of his high school years in detention but has now become the town’s heroic police chief; Emil Ouimet, the town physician who wears his love for Margaret on his sleeve, and Randy Pope, the golf-team-captain-turned-respectable-lawyer.

In the end, all loose ends are neatly tied up and all single characters are suitably paired, and Sunny finds a possible new half-brother in Fletcher.

The Thief

By Ruth Rendell

Not a typical Ruth Rendell novel. It is extremely short, only 86 pages and large print. There is no mind blowing twist at the end. The suspense lies in how the main character, Polly, will solve her problem, a problem that takes her into a world of fear and deception and which eventually destroys her wonderful, new life with boyfriend Alex.

Polly has finally found happiness with her boyfriend Alex and no longer lies or steals, like she used to in the past when she had a need to take things from the people who hurt her, like her Aunt Pauline, a girl at school and a boyfriend who left. Alex, on the other hand, loves her and so he trusts her and believes her.

On the way to New York she is alone, and once confronted with an unpleasant situation, she reverts to her habit of stealing from those who have crossed her. She takes the luggage of Trevor Lant, a passenger on the same plane, who has been offensive and rude to her. Her first reaction is of relief and joy but she soon finds herself surrounded by fear and deception, and Trevor Lant’s revenge is only a stone throw away.