Rating: 
Summary: Dense, Dark and Tragic
Review: A real stunner! Admit I was frustrated by the book's almost inscrutable opening chapters and Vine's apparent modus aperandi of the narrator's conversational references to events and characters yet to be properly introduced -- I took to underlining names for future refernce like a lit-student -- and I almost gave up around chapter 4, but stuck with it and was rewarded with a compulsive page-turner dense with Vine's abundant detail and methodical character development. Literature of a high order, the novel is both a period evocation of life in the English countryside during WWII and a relentlessly detailed collection of character studies. There's been a murder; all that the reader is certain of throughout is Who the Murderer was, and only through the painstaking recreation of the lives involved is mystery set to rest. Note must be made of the stunning conclusion. Has the requisite 'summing up' ever been so emotionally resonant as these amazing paragraphs that crown Vine's dark symphony, as one after another that tangled myriad of characters weigh in on their answer to the Riddle, Who Was It?, in sentences that succeed and layer each upon the last in a dizzying, thunderous final chord? The family that Faith reconstructs through her memories, a tattered and shoddy remnant of British class society, has been the point of this disturbing, moving murder mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: As a mystery, only fair
Review: I guess I will be the one who appears to disagree with the majority of reviewers of this book. I will agree with the fact that the story is well written and laid out very well by Vine (Rendell). As a work of literature this is definitely a good book. I however, selected this book because it won an Edgar Award for best mystery and had those expectations. The book moves very slowly. I put it down countless times and read other books in the process. I picked it back up because of the wonderful reviews I had seen on Amazon. (I had not read anything by Ruth Rendell or Barbara Vine to compare the style of this book to her other books. According to a note in the back of the book when Rendell writes as Vine, she writes in an entirely different style.) In the end, I wasn't satisfied as a lover of mysteries with the pace or the outcome of the book. So if you are looking for a fast paced mystery novel then this is not for you. If your expectation is that of a piece of literature that well depicts a society family in 1940s England, and the dysfunctional nature that they try to conceal and how it affects their lives both then and into the present, then this will not disappoint. Just don't expect this book to go quickly.
Rating:
Summary: Fun with Families
Review: I really enjoyed this book. The characters felt very real, and I felt better about my family after reading about this one. Always a plus. My only complaint is that it would have been fantastic if a family tree had been included. I made one and it definitely helped. Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine is a master.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific mystery
Review: I think this was my first Barbara Vine book and what a treat. Truthfully the first chapter was a bit hard to follow, Vine sort of throws you into the family history without much preparation but it gets sorted out soon. I couldn't put this book down, it was totally absorbing. So beautifully written it reads more like a memoir than a novel. Really original story.
Rating: 
Summary: Who cares?
Review: I was disappointed in the work. Rendell's writing style is wonderful, her vocabulary artful. The problem was that I was not made to care about any of the characters--just superficial snapshots of way too many people to keep track of. The author described and gave detailed background information on at least 20 people who were never again involved in the story. When I finally struggled to the end, the thought I had was, "Who cares?"
Rating:
Summary: The best book of a top-notch author.
Review: If not for sexism and genre-snobbery, Ruth Rendell, alias Barbara Vine, would be recognized as one of the greatest living writers, and this book is her masterpiece. Vera Hillyard undoubtedly committed a murder and was duly hanged for it. More than thirty years later, Daniel Stewart, a writer researching a "re-examination" of the case, approaches Vera's niece, Faith. In helping Stewart, Faith is drawn back into the past. It is Faith who has the "dark-adapted eye" and can see murky things in the past (both about society and about her own family) that her modern-day grown children can't begin to comprehend. The book is replete with symbolism and secrets: secrets springing from the repressed sexual mores of the forties and fifties, touching on homosexuality, illegitimacy, adultery, and supposedly virgin brides. The richness and complexity of the narrative, the bell-ringing realness of the emotions described, and the capture in amber of mid-twentieth century attitudes, make this a book to read over and over, and to recommend to everyone you know.
Rating:
Summary: Good pyschological thriller
Review: If you want a book, where it's a puzzle to find out "whodunnit", then this isn't for you. Very quickly (within the first 10 pages) you know who is going to be killed by who. The rest of the novel covers the years leading up to that time. It's a fascinating character study, and a slice of life in 1940s England. The characters in the book are forever concealing their motivations, sins, and passions from society as a whole. The narrator struggles to understand her family members, and what caused the murder to take place. In the end, you will also see that there is a mystery that is left hanging for the reader. Not the one that was revealed on page 10. However, there is another assumption in the book, that you find is not valid, and the solution is never laid out. This book is slow, as some reviewers have mentioned. The first 50 pages or so take awhile to get moving. I advise you to stick with it, as these characters aren't as one-dimensional as they might originally seem.
Rating:
Summary: A Dark Adaptive Eye
Review: My first time viewing a video with a story by Ruth Rendell. I am not going to go into detail about the literary aspects of the story, but more about my opinion of the characters. I see on the website that Vera is discussed as a very controlling, strange and domineering woman.She seems pretty tame to me. In my opinion, Vera is quilty of nothing more than having an eccentric personality, but so what! If anyone is quilty of madness, it is her sister Eden and her son Francis. It is apparent that these two bad seeds were out to push poor old Vera over the edge. Also, I believe throughout this entire story, that Vera is,in a way, the victim of circumstance. It is apparent to me that the March baby she is accused of killing was not killed by her, but by Mr. March. The only murder Vera is guilty of is her sisters, and I couldn't blame her for killing her. Eden drove Vera to madness. So vera didn't have lots of money and she was a bit eccentric. She gave the baby what he needed most...love and affection, which is something Eden wasn't capable of doing!! Personally, I do not feel Vera should have been hanged. The murder had not been premeditated. It was a crime of passion and temporary insanity brought on by none other than the emotionally impotent Eden. And another thing, what about that niece of Vera's. Faith knew what Eden was out to do. Both Faith and her husband knew what Eden was doing was wrong, they should have done something about it. Some how I feel this murder and hanging could have been avoided, if Faith had gotten envolved. And where was Vera's brother John in all of this? Why didn't he get envolved!!? Ultimately though, Vera should not have been hanged, given the circumstances. If there was an injustice, it was against poor Vera. Sorry for typos, can't figure out how to use my spelling checker here.
Rating:
Summary: Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine has never written a better book.
Review: Since her first novel, A DARK-ADAPTED EYE, Barbara Vine has written several superb psychological thrillers. A FATAL INVERSION, THE HOUSE OF STAIRS, ANNA'S BOOK, and THE BRIMSTONE WEDDING in particular are exceptional suspense novels. But not one of them comes even close to A DARK-ADAPTED EYE which, after more than a decade, is still the best Rendell/Vine novel to date. What drove Vera Hillyard to brutally murder her younger sister Eden? The answer turns out to be far more complex than the question. Wryly narrated by their niece, Faith Severn, this flat-out brilliant story brings to light a hidden world of love, lust, greed, and pain. Vine's characters aren't just well-developed; they are completely real and totally convincing. What distinguishes A DARK-ADAPTED EYE from Rendell/Vine's other novels is that aside from the usual intricate plotting and realistic sense of place, the conclusion is gut-wrenchingly emotional. As the inevitable tragedy approaches, the suspense escalates to a fevered pitch, and the final climax manages to be riveting and deeply moving. More than any of her other books, A DARK-ADAPTED EYE shows that the mystery genre is not at all inferior to serious fiction; on the contrary, the mystery genre at its best delivers the best that the literary world can offer.
Rating:
Summary: fun to read nonetheless
Review: This is one of the most sophisticated mysteries in years, and intitated a whole series of superior psychological novels from Ruth Rendell under the nom de plume Barbara Vine. The work begins with the sensational headline-grabbing state hanging of Vera Hillyard; the rest of the work is preoccupied with why she was executed and whom she murdered. Although Vera's victim becomes apparent earlier than halfway through the book, the whys of murder are much more intriguing: indeed, the novel purposefully begins with a knotted web of familial Hillyard relations for the reader to enjoy sorting through until it all makes sense. The tale Vine has to relate is a complex one, extraordinarily deftly told: one has only to see the well-meant expensive botch made of it on British television to see how extraordinarily subtle Vine's art is here. The sense of wartime and postwar atmosphere is marvelously evoked, and the particular attention given here to WWII makeup and glamor (a favorite preoccupation of Barbara Vine's) is an especially intriguing and enjoyable detail.
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