Rating: 
Summary: Uncare leads to crime
Review: Ruth Rendell writes detective stories that are anything but detective stories. This book is the perfect example of this transformation of the genre. We are not interested in the police investigation for a very simple reason : the book is not about it since we, the readers, know everything from the very first page. It shows how haphazard and accidental an investigation is. The main interest of this book is the deep study of the psychology of the characters, and first of all of the murderer. Ruth Rendell depicts a serial killer that cannot be profiled in the FBI way. She is just « mad », out of her mind, mentally impaired. She kills in a complete delusion because she lives in a complete delusion and killing is not killing : it is getting rid of haunting ghosts. Just for that reason the book is fascinating. But the book is also richer than any in the genre because of the deep study of several human types who reveal how our democratic and free societies work. It is, in a way, a severe denunciation of several categories of people who do not make our society better but make it definitely worse, particularly for those who do not have a simple, humdrum, gullible, submissive and obedient psyche and life. It debunks the press and the media and the way they become vultures when they want to make money with a scoop that they have to find, or when they want to make money by selling millions of copies regardless of the harm they may cause to their subject people, their victims. The book exposes the rich and powerful who think they can do anything they want because they can buy it, buy a wife to cover up their private life, buy silence or buy information, buy cars or houses or just some woman to take care of them, and the worst way of buying is not with money but with your good looks, if you are a man just as well as if you are a woman. It finally denunciates the attitude of a few in our society who are ready to do anything to get their hands on some comfort, money or anything they consider important. Social climbing is the worst think a society like ours can endure, and this exists because our society does not provide honest means to achieve something if you do not have the money, the power or the luck necessary to start with. Social services are at stake and they do not come out clean in this book because they do not solve problems, they only contain them. So the book is full of what the Americans would call « grotesque » people : too obese, too thin, too unbalanced, too rich, too afraid of public exposure for nothing but their free private life, etc. But Ruth Rendell seems to be an optimist. After all most of these grotesque characters find a normal and decent way out of their grotesqueness. Most of them, except a few, the victims of the system that makes some of us innocent victims of uncare, like the children in the book, or innocent victims of neglect, the neglect of professionals who should see, who do see and yet do nothing, like in that case the murderer who is known as deranged by a doctor, a policeman, many other people, including her employer, but no one for one reason or another tries to bring her the help she needs in her difficult situation that cannot be solved without this outside help : the irony of this situation is that this lack of care leads to two dead people, many others haunted and severely annoyed by police procedures that lead nowhere, and a lot of wasted energy, love, peace of mind and plain peace « in the valley » if I can say so. What costs or would cost more to society ? To repair the damage caused by this lack of care or the necessary work to prevent it ? Where is the limit between prying into other people's private business and preventing personal disorder or sickness, public disorder and even crime ?
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating: 
Summary: Here are All the Lonely People
Review: Ruth Rendell's Adam and Eve and Pinch Me has all the ingredients that have made her novels so compelling but, in this one, the parts do not make for as fulfilling a whole as one expects from such a skilled writer. There is the usual cast of fascinating (not likeable) characters with more than the usual assortment of compulsions and deceits driving them and the plot. At times, the quirks seem a little forced as even very minor characters are burdened with a glaring oddity or two, taking the heat from the major characters. The suspense is toned down to focus on the psychology and too much of the plot is telegraphed. A tighter, narrower focus on a lesser number of characters could have been more compelling. It is still a good read but not as good as one should expect from the author of the wonderful Wexford series, as well as her other delicious, weird mysteries.
Rating:
Summary: Rendell certainly isn't mellowing with age!
Review: This is another absolute winner from Ruth Rendell, my favourite novelist of all time. Of all her books, this is possibly her very very best. It is an amazing portrait of damaged characters forced into dangerous situations, the results of which can only be a tragedy. She displays the catastrohpic inevitability of events already set in motion with a depressing and disturbing reality. It is unsetlling to think that already our lives could be on course for a crash, by perhaps being set to meet a character similar to those in her books...those characters whose smallest actiosn can bring their own worlds, and the worlds od those around them, falling to the ground.
She describes contemporary life excellently, and she draws her characters perfectly. Their downright weirdness is entirely realistic, which comes as a surprise, and a pleasure, as many authors are not able to write authentically and realisticaly about the kinds of characters that Rendell does. The plot is complex, and at the end she draws all the strands tightly together with the ability of the seasoned and consumate professional that she is. It's a thrilling and entirely suspenseful book, the type of suspense that only Rendell seems capable of creating, via the slow yet enthralling unravelling of her plots. The addition of aspects of the supernatural into the plot only add another layer of chilliness and strangeness to this brilliant book. The mystery and supernatural threads compliment each other incredibly well. The climax is understated and shocking, leaving us, as do all the best books, wanting to know more about the characters and what is to happen to them. It is also written so well that it should please not just any fan of Rendell, or just any kind of crime fiction, but anyone interested in more "literary" fiction. Rendell has deserved the Booker prize for many of her books, this one is no exception, and it is a great injustice that she will not get it. I long for the day when the literary world recognises the true talent of Ruth Rendell.
Rating:
Summary: Adam and Eve and Pinch Me
Review: This psycho-thriller tells the story of three women and their connection to a charming con man, Jerry/Jeff/Jock, who lives off women, then disappears and moves on to his next victim. Jerry becomes a victim himself when he is stabbed to death in a movie theater. The stories of the three women, and some supporting characters, are woven together. There is just the right mix of characters, some rather endearingly peculiar, to make the book interesting. This book holds the reader's interest from the beginning to the end. It is one of Rendell's best books.
Rating: 
Summary: Innocence and evil, Rendell-style
Review: Twice in this novel, Laf, probably the least-damaged of its many vivid characters, asks if someone killed a human monster (like a Hitler or a Mussolini) and didn't know what he or she were doing, whether it would be an evil act. This novel is in large part a response to his question. Jeff, a very handsome con artist who lives off other women's money, intersects with the lives of a whole series of characters, from the emotionally disturbed Minty to the lovely wealthy Fiona to the ethically-challenged Zillah (his previous wife, and the mother of his miserable children). Although jeff isn;'t fully aware of the damage he inflicts on the women who he seduces and cons, he creates great emotional wreckage in his wake; midway through the novel he is killed, and the rest of the narrative attempts to sort out what happens to everyone else. As far as Ruth Rendell novels go this is right up there with A DARK-ADAPTED EYE in its ethical and narrative complexity: it's very hard to put down, and the characters greatly come to life on the page and then afterwards. Even the most ethically ambiguous characters, (such as the neglectful Zillah and her cruel and snobbish friend Jims) are nevertheless sympathetic to some degree. In Rendell's world there are no escape from the wages of sin: the world as she sees it is so fallen that even the most innocent characters (such as Minty and Fiona) must suffer for the sins of others.
Rating:
Summary: A page turner, but dissapointing
Review: With her ususal excellent style and story telling skills, Ruth Rendell introduces us to a petty criminal and the effect he has on several of his victoms--lonely, vulnerable women. Somewhere in the middle of the novel, by an unfortunate (or fortunate) coincidence he meets his death in a moveie theater by the hand of a former victim. The second part is dedicated to the effect this deathhas on his victims. As usual in Rendell's novels, we are exposed to her much praised talent to draw in fine psycological detail her charcaters. Because of that, Rendell's novels carry some form of social significance that take them beyond the mystery level. And as usual, this book is a page turner. However, in this particular novel, she has too many characters and, respectively, too many social issues/implications going on that do not always come together as planned. We have a gay MP that is relevied when he is forced to come out (social responsibiltry vs. personal freedom), his wife who is not necessarily a bad mother to her kids, but still really dumb (feminist ideas vs. traditional upbringing dilemmas); a couple with opposite eating disorders that somehow get cured abd their relationship with their friend who unvoluntarily implcates them in a crime (friednship and betrayal); and all of the above are not related too much to the mystery. I just felt that she has tried to put everything into a single book leaving a lot of the questions she raises unresolved...
Rating:
Summary: new ground
Review: Yes, this latest by Ruth Rendell is breaking new ground for
her, and we can understand her interest in exploring new
territory, but this story doesn't have the tight plotting and
exciting mysteries of her famous Inspector Wexford series.
This one is more of a "psychological thriller" than mystery,
and it suffers by the exclusion of a mystery component.
An interesting story, but we have to hope the author returns
to her justly-famous mysteries and gives us another winner.
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