Enjoyable

This story is set in a large multistorey house divided into rooms and flats.
Many and various characters reside here, including, obviously, this being Rendell, a murderous nutter on the top floor.
This ensemble of characters is a pleasant backdrop to the two main stories - a difficult love affair, and our psychopath. Enjoyable.

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1 person found this helpful

Excellent story. Great twist.

I really enjoy Ruth Rendell stories both with and without Insp. Wexford. I could see the characters, hear them, know how they felt. Her descriptions of her darker characters never fail to draw us into their macabre worlds. This story doesn’t disappoint.

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Great listen

I really enjoyed this story. As always with Ruth Rendell, I like getting to know the characters who are always very intriguing. This was a particularly good listen, nicely read by Julian Glover (accents aside which I found a little strange!) What a vile character Arthur Johnson is!!

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shame about the narrator.

as always a good story from Ruth Rendell, the narrator really should stay away from West Indian accents though.

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Dated but decent

Continuing to work through the non-Wexford novels, this was a decent listen to pass the time - though very dated with weak pathetic female characters. Interesting to look back though on how people relied on the post for communication - looking forward each day to the postman arriving and having one telephone (a pay-phone) shared between all the flats, Dreadful attempt at a female Jamaican accent is why I gave the narration 2 stars in what would otherwise have been a decent performance.
A bit uncomfortable at times with what are now racist terms, but were acceptable and commonplace at the time.

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Totally gripping and brilliant

One of the best stories I’ve listened to on Audible. It was absolutely amazing and I loved it. Even though I guessed the end!!

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Epic thriller!!

you won't be able to put this down! Rendell creates interesting characters that intermingle throughout. One moment early on stops you in your tracks and this partly dictates the main character's behaviour in later pages. The ending is PERFECT ! She links various themes that have been running throughout and brings them together in the final chapters, very difficult to guess the final outcome, she delivers an amazing end to a story of intrigue, a tremendous read!

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Very good.

Another Ruth Rendell with disparate characters all interlinked. I guessed some of the plot but it didn't disappoint. The narration was first class.

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Postscript

I have just read some reviews which complain that this story is “racist”. How odd! I don’t think so in the least. The author uses the word’coloured’ which was normal and polite before it became de rigeur to say ‘black’ instead. Ruth Rendell wasn’t remotely racist, Her warmly-described, positive black characters appear in this story and many others.

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drawn out

struggled to finish, long and drawn out not much plot etc. narration was good but overall I have read better by Ruth.

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