Rendell’s sociopath proves to be neither the centerpiece of this mystery nor of Ric Jerrom’s narration. Nonetheless, Jerrom’s portrayal of Rendell’s narcissistic killer is indeed chilling, but the greater challenge—and his best portrait—is that of prim Rosemary, who stumbles from complacency into her own murderous state as the seemingly rock-solid footing of her life pitches unexpectedly. Ostensibly, the mystery is that of sixty-year-old double murder. But the greater questions are posed by senior citizens who wonder: “How did I come to this point in my life, and is this how it continues until the (no longer distant) end?” Jerrom’s thoughtful narration gets us convincingly inside their minds. K.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

…grim, grotesque and yet strangely beautiful…Rendell makes clever work of a split time frame to transport her characters from the past to the present and back again. But her best, most idiosyncratic study is her portrait of the villain of the piece, a wicked man in his youth and an absolute devil in his dotage, determined to live to be 100 out of pure spite.

08/18/2014
In this assured novel of psychological suspense from Diamond Dagger Award–winner Rendell (The St. Zita Society), a gruesome discovery jolts a group of friends and acquaintances who grew up outside London during WWII. Two people’s hands—severed and interred inside a cookie tin—are unearthed at a former construction site where they once hid and schemed. At the center of the now aged clique is the “girl next door,” Daphne Jones, ever envied and admired. John “Woody” Winwood, a man whose wife went missing with her lover during the turmoil of the blitzkrieg, is a malevolent presence, past and present, in the story. In contemporary Britain, Winwood’s son, Michael, must face his nonagenerian father, who abandoned him decades before and then married into money, inheriting a fortune from his subsequent wives. Rendell keeps the plot and the home fires burning, and the most memorable characters, Daphne and Woody, cast sufficient light to brighten their somewhat dull companions. Agent: Peter Matson, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Nov.)

A must read… not your typical crime story, but it is a typical Rendell book — cunningly observed, elegantly written.

This book is extraordinarily courageous, a demonstration that fiction can take us where reportage dares not go.

[Rendell] has always been at her heart-stopping best when she pushes the reader out of the comfort zone with her stand-alone psychological thrillers…The Girl Next Door is vintage Rendell and a perfect celebration of her half-century…This novel reminded me of the singularity of Ruth Rendell’s talent, her effortless mastery of language and her uncanny genius for mapping a criminal mind.

[Rendell] is one of the most literate living writers of fiction…Her witty style and her endless trove of subtle references to fellow writers (living and dead) are matched by a timeliness that always takes on contemporary social issues along with the invented mystery that propels her plot into action. Part of the miracle is that with more than 60 books to her credit over a half-century career, Ms. Rendell never descends into mere formula. The Girl Next Door is no exception.

Only recently has it been common for novelists to work into their late 70s and beyond — not merely producing new work but writing at a very high level. A case in point is Ruth Rendell, whose new novel, The Girl Next Door, just appeared. Rendell is 84…Like her contemporary P.D. James, she is one of the finest writers of her time… her wit, always mordant, has never been sharper than when she skewers patronizing assumptions about the ‘elderly.’”

"Ruth Rendell's fiction clusters at such a high level that the best judgment I can render about The Girl Next Door is this: It's a good Rendell, and that makes it very good indeed."

Using her customary spare yet decorous style and measured pace, Rendell, now in her 80s, beautifully and carefully individualizes each member of her ensemble cast, at the same time creating not a grim reminder of mortality but a picture of moribund lives renewed. A special book by a special writer.

Using her customary spare yet decorous style and measured pace, Rendell, now in her 80s, beautifully and carefully individualizes each member of her ensemble cast, at the same time creating not a grim reminder of mortality but a picture of moribund lives renewed. A special book by a special writer.

"What I love about the prolific Rendell is her adherence to the elegant traditions of British mysteries without ignoring modern life."

"A Joy to read."

"Refined, probing, and intelligent.... The book is never less than a pleasure."

"No one surpasses Ruth Rendell when it comes to stories of obsession, istability, and malignant coincidence."

"A novel by Ruth Rendell is like none other..... The results are seldom what we expect them to be, and that is part of this author's special genius."

The characters jump off the page. The page-to-page surprises are so clever that the reader is left agape at each twist and turn. The pieces fit together brilliantly.

It's a pleasure to report that Ruth Rendell, at the age of 82 and after publishing more than 60 books, has given us yet another gem. A pleasure but not a surprise, since Rendell has for years, along with her friend P.D. James, been bringing new sophistication and psychological depth to the traditional English mystery.

Unequivocally the most brilliant mystery writer of our time.

If you’re unfamiliar with Ruth Rendell, if you’ve somehow managed to miss her sixty or so books … then, congratulations: Your reading life is about to get infinitely richer."

Rendell’s sociopath proves to be neither the centerpiece of this mystery nor of Ric Jerrom’s narration. Nonetheless, Jerrom’s portrayal of Rendell’s narcissistic killer is indeed chilling, but the greater challenge—and his best portrait—is that of prim Rosemary, who stumbles from complacency into her own murderous state as the seemingly rock-solid footing of her life pitches unexpectedly. Ostensibly, the mystery is that of sixty-year-old double murder. But the greater questions are posed by senior citizens who wonder: “How did I come to this point in my life, and is this how it continues until the (no longer distant) end?” Jerrom’s thoughtful narration gets us convincingly inside their minds. K.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

2014-09-18
Rendell's 65th novel shows the incalculable effects of a 70-year-old crime on a group of friends—schoolchildren when it happened, alarmingly unpredictable retirees now. One evening in 1944, John Winwood caught his wife, Anita, holding hands with another man. Taking the first opportunity to entice the lovers into his conjugal bed by pretending to take a trip, he strangled them both, then disposed of their bodies, but not before cutting off the offending hands, depositing them in a biscuit tin and burying it in a neighborhood tunnel. Two generations later, a construction project suddenly brings the biscuit tin to light, and the children who used to play in the tunnels—or the qanats, as the Winwoods' 12-year-old next-door neighbor, Daphne Jones, called them—soon connect the ghoulish find with the time when Winwood chased them all out of the qanats. Alan Norris and his wife, Rosemary, resolve to visit their old friend George Batchelor, whose wife, Maureen, writes to DI Colin Quell. While Quell awaits the results of tests on the ancient discovery, Alan unaccountably leaves Rosemary and takes up with Daphne, causing unfathomable hurt and confusion for his wife of 50 years, his daughter and his granddaughters. Winwood's son Michael, suddenly bereaved of Zoe Nicholson, the aunt who brought him up, feels a responsibility to reconnect with Clara Moss, his family's old cleaner, and his unloving father, who incredibly is still alive at 99 in the Urban Grange rest home. Complications will follow, but they're not at all the ones you'd expect. The sedate pace and sociological focus of Rendell's recent work (No Man's Nightingale, 2013, etc.) are quickened here by the capacity of her golden agers to act, and act out, in ways as surprising as they are logical.