Rating: 
Summary: A terrific novel
Review: It is evident that people have strong reactions to this book. I liked it more than any other Rendell/Vine book, with the possible exception of "Dark Adapted Eye." One of the most fascinating features of the book is the way in which forms of sexual pathology get repeated, with variations, through three generations of a family. Gerald's mother's relationship with her second husband gets echoed in Gerald's relationship with his wife, and Gerald's two daughters act it out in their own peculiar ways, until the very end, when one of them wakes up. There's great insight into what might be called the erotic lives of families, and the writing is first rate.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I`ve ever read
Review: It really is, it's not like any ordinary "crime"book, but still very thrilling. I can only agree with Minette Walters: "unputdownable". It feels like you know how it's going to end from the beginning, but that doesn't matter, not for me anyway. I wanted to go on reading and reading and I actually felt sad when the book was finished.
Rating:
Summary: Challenging, intriguing, outstanding
Review: It's no secret that Barbara Vine and Ruth Rendell are one in the same. Rendell writes police procedurals under her own name, while using the Vine pseudonym for novels more psychological and less police-driven. Her books are novels rather than mysteries-character-rich and plot-complex, surprising, and often haunting."The Chimney Sweeper's Boy" is her best Barbara Vine book since the remarkable "No Night is Too Long." Barely into the story, Gerald Candless, a writer both critically acclaimed and popular, dies at the age of 71. Vine has already deftly revealed his family-the detached wife, the adoring, unkind daughters and Candless himself as unfeeling and even cruel. They've invited guests to lunch, treat them with indifference and get them to play a parlor game, the only point of which seems to be to mock those not part of their inner circle. When Candless dies, his daughter Sarah is asked by his publisher to write a biography of her father. Almost immediately, Sarah discovers that her father was not what he seemed-in fact, his name wasn't even Gerald Candless. But who was he? How does she find out, and does this self-centered woman who reveled in her father's love really want to find out? As in "Simisola," the Ruth Rendell book where the source of the title was not revealed until the very end, "The Chimney Sweeper's Boy" uses an interesting narrative process to unroll the story. How she tucks the ends of the story together will both intrigue and satisfy readers, although she wisely knows that no story should give all the answers.
Rating:
Summary: Bring on the Prudes
Review: It's quite clear that the negative reviews of this excellent novel were mainly written by people unnerved by the subject matter. Hence they make such vitriolic and ridiculous claims - to call Barbara Vine's work "tabloid sensationalism" is stupid beyond belief, considering what a sensitive writer she is. As for the narrow-minded cretin who found the book "nauseous", I pity you. If you aren't comfortable reading about sexuality, that's YOUR problem, not Barbara Vine's. And with regard to the ending being 'guessable', so what? We're not talking about an Agatha Christie novel, where the only worthwhile feature would be the surprise ending. Vine's books are rich and absorbing character studies with an element of mystery; enjoyment of them is not based around working out 'whodunnit'.
Rating: 
Summary: Yuck, three unhappy women and one sick man
Review: Mistery, yes well, what mystery? You can read in the first pages that Gerald Candless wants kids but cannot imagine conception with a woman. That is a good hint at what is bothering the man. What really turned me off was the fate of the Candless women. All unhappy because of their husband/father. Not only unhappy but trapped. Ursula, the best of her years wasted on a loveless marriage. The girls, so hung up on their father they are unable to form relationships of their own. Hope has a boyfriend but does not seem half as involved with him as with her (dead) fahter. How awful. What a macho story. The author never lets one the three female charcters doubt their place and role in that family. There is no inkling of braking away for their own good. It's almost hard to believe a woman sat down to write a story of such trapped female souls. No more books from Barbara Vine for me, thank you.
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable, but well-plotted
Review: No, the ending wasn't contrived, although I could see it coming a mile away. The reader saw all the puzzle pieces Ursula and Sarah saw, but they didn't see all the pieces since they barely spoke to each other. My hunch is the Ryans weren't as cruel about the scissors game as the Candlesses.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT READ!
Review: Once again, Barbara Vine has taken the genre to new heights. The first chapter was a bit boring, but I stuck with it and found myself completely taken with the characters and the mystery. Rarely does a book actually increase my pulse, but this one did so...not in the way that a horror novel does, but through anticipation of discovery and curiosity about the characters. I wanted to know what the end of the story would bring! As critics have said, Vine is a thinking person's mystery writer. I love this book.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful, dramatic and disturbing work.
Review: Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine, once again uses her razor-sharp scalpel to dissect a dysfunctional family in "The Chimney Sweeper's Boy." She has done this many times before. "A Sight for Sore Eyes" comes to mind as an example. Rendell shows how our "loved ones" have the power to destroy us and how families are the battlefield of humanity. This book is about Gerald Candless, a successful and famous novelist who has a wife, Ursula, and two daughters, Hope and Sarah. He treats his daughters like goddesses and he is indifferent and, at times, vicious to his wife. Sarah begins to do research for a biography about her father's life, and she finds that Gerald had hidden a secret identity from the rest of the world. Rendell makes the gradual revelation of the truth about Gerald's past extremely suspenseful. She brilliantly interweaves bits of Gerald's writing into the book to show how he used the creative process to deal with his personal demons. Gerald cannibalized the lives of those around him for the sake of his art. Rendell delves into the psyches of each member of this unhappy family expertly, and I felt empathy for these people who had been manipulated by a master of deceit.
Rating:
Summary: Vine's best since House of Stairs
Review: The Chimney Sweeper's Boy offers an array of brilliantly rendered characters and a host of mysteries. I am baffled by reviewers who think that the novel's finale was added merely for shock effect and a way to conclude Vine's portrait of a family in extremis. Such readers obviously missed the fog motif which dominates the novel and prepares the reader for the denoument. I feel that Vine plays fair with her readers and delivers one of her greatest novels in years!
Rating:
Summary: Sharper Than the Serpent's Tooth
Review: This fine psychological study is long on characterization and suspense, but short in the thriller department. I think Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) has surpassed herself in the creation of Ursula, the ignored wife and mother. Gerald Candless, famous author, devoted and adored father, husband of Ursula dies of a heart attack at 71 in his home on the Devon coast. His two daughters, to whom he has dedicated his life, are devastated. Ursula feels nothing, but as both Gerald and her daughters have disregarded her since they were born, no one particularly notices. Elder daughter Sarah is commissioned to write a memoir of her celebrated father. During her preliminary research, she finds that Gerald Candless reinvented himself at age 25, that the real Gerald Candless died when he was six years old. This seems to be an impossibility given the extreme closeness among Gerald (who wasn't really Gerald) and his daughters. Sarah is ambivalent about going forward with her research. The daughters who are in their early 30's are just about as spoiled as you would expect them to be and shockingly indifferent to their mother. Ursula is almost paralyzed by her apathy toward Gerald and unable to reach out to her daughters after being thoroughly rebuffed for so many years. This is the mystery that is to be solved. Ms. Vine cleverly gives us more and more well-placed psychological clues that lead us toward Gerald's secret. Each chapter heading is supposedly a quote from one of Gerald's books and they are engagingly witty---"The meek may inherit the earth, but they won't keep it long." --- and serve as clues to the upcoming events. Great importance is placed upon "The Game" which Gerald and his daughters trot out to torment those not in their inner circle. It is so stupid; the entire trio should have been smacked. Ursula wisely has never taken part. (Not that she was asked!) The problem with "The Chimney Sweeper's Boy" is the setup is great, but the denouement doesn't live up to it. Some readers might feel they have invested a great deal of their time and energy for very little. I felt like getting there was half the fun and admired the way Ms. Vine breathes life into all these people. Even the enigmatic Gerald is more to be pitied than scorned. I would recommend reading Ms. Vine's "Dark Adapted Eye" first. If you find that enjoyable and are anxious for more, pick up "The Chimney Sweeper's Boy." Hint: The title is a clue. -sweetmolly-Amazon.com Reviewer
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