Rating: 
Summary: even an all time great can turn out a horrible book
Review: I've read everything Rendell has written(including the Barbara Vines) and she is the best in the mystery genre and often transends it. She can therefore be forgiven for this total misfire---thin ,forced and utterly unconvincing. Her forte may well be creating fabulous villains but the one here is trite and uninteresting. I'm surprised so many of the reviews by readers who know and love her work are raves. I'm generally inclined to cut her a lot of slack
Rating: 
Summary: Absorbing and brilliant
Review: A killer is on the loose, strangling young women before leaving with one of their personal items. In the midst of the investigation, we get a glimpse of life within an antique shop/apartment house owned by Inez Ferry. Her tenants include an eclectic assortment of characters and of course one of them is the killer. In typical Rendell fashion, the killer is revealed by page 100 but the how and why is not and as the killer himself seeks an answer as to why he is doing these deeds, so is the reader and it keeps us turning the pages.
Ruth Rendell never ceases to amaze and I truly wonder how she comes up with these intriguing plots and interesting characters. It is common for such an assortment of characters to come together in some fashion or be connected some way but I was surprised to see that they really do not in this novel. Still, Rendell's prose is highly engrossing and she is a master at depicting the dark side of the human psyche. These characters are among her most vivid and include one of the most sympathetic she has ever created, a young good looking mentally deficient man who becomes a suspect. The incident that leads up to him being suspected is rather heartbreaking.
As always, one the elements that make Rendell's book so much fun is her dark humor when writing about a character or reading their thoughts. Case in point is Zeinab, a beautiful Asian women who works for Inez in the antique shop and uses her beauty to snag rich men in order to pay for her families luxuries.
I only had one minor quip with the story and it concerns the theft of a strongbox and the thief eventually unlocking the combination by a simple guess. Highly unbelievable and unlikely but that is the only flaw in this exceptionally intriguing novel.
Rating: 
Summary: London creeps
Review: I am an avid, and I mean avid, fan of Ruth Rendell. Some of her stories have haunted me for years, stories like A JUDGEMENT IN STONE and THE KILLING DOLL, in which she describes situations that are twisted and embedded in everyday life inhabited by psychos who harbour enough malevolence and hopelessless to make you despair for mankind.
The story is centred around an antique shop on a street near Marylebone. Someone has been killing girls and dumping their bodies. The first body had bite marks and hence the killer is coined the Rottweiler. Rendell is a genius for merging several plot lines at once and here she is in top form. The shop owner has tenants in her building, a cast of interesting and suspicious characters, including the murderer himself, as well as a backward housepainter whose vulnerability and confusion drive the plot. Among the sub-plots is this man's sister, who is overwhelmed with equal measures of guilt in caring for her backward brother, and despair for finding any happiness in her dreay London life.
This is a great pageturner for a weekend with a book. Rendell writes a tight plot with creepy, motivated characters and creates enough obstacles and weightiness to keep you in thrall. In its way, this book is as much about the city of London as it is about people and mystery which is what adds to the pleasure and discovery.
Rating:
Summary: She never disappoints
Review: I had been waiting eagerly for her latest, and love it. The woman CANNOT write a dull story...I do not care for the Inspector Wexford series, but love her others and when she writes as Barbara Vine. Don't miss this one; the usual interesting characters and insight into some twisted psyches.
Rating:
Summary: She still amazes after all these years...
Review: I've been buying her books for years and I find her to be
one of the best there is. At times an aquired taste but she tackles many subjects and is
brillant at the little details and gets inside people like know
other. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for something different in the mystery/suspense vain and she just
makes London so real, so dead gloomy. A great book from a master story teller. Serial murder with a twisted psychogical edge with characters so real yet very flawed inside. She just
loves to lead us on..
Rating:
Summary: Well written thriller that is more. . . .
Review: If you like sensational, bloodthirsty serial-killer stories like those of Thomas Harris, this book will not be to your taste. Ms. Rendell's novels are about characters, and she is good at probing the darker side of human behaviour. The crime makes a backdrop to the real story, the shifting tensions and suspicions between the employees and lodgers at a Marleybone antiques shop, who begin to believe they have a killer in their midst. If you like intelligent character develpoment that makes for good reading, this is a book you might enjoy. If you only want empty thrills look somewhere else. I also suggest you check out "A Tourist in the Yucatan" a thriller that has become an underground hit, especially in the UK.
Rating:
Summary: This thriller is excellent storytelling
Review: In London, the first victim had a bite on her neck so the media dubbed the killer The Rottweiler", but that is so far from the truth about this murderer for the next two fatalities failed to include the bite. Instead the serial killer uses a garrote on his or her prey and takes an object from the deceased. Somehow these objects end up in Inez Ferry's antique shop.
The police investigate everyone associated with Inez especially the boarders who reside in a home owned by Inez. Still the killer is clever making no mistakes as the count rises and the collectables show up in her shop. Inez wonders which one of her boarders, friends, or customers is the Rottweiler as she decides she must uncover this serial killer who has made her life a notorious mess before he or she adds her to the count?
The incredible cast including a gloomy London that feels like a Ripper scenario makes this serial killer novel fill the audience with tension that never eases up even when the tale is finished. Several individuals seem sane yet on edge, which obviously can be a result of the murder spree in their neighborhood, but also leads readers and Inez to wonder which one is the killer although the former will not rule out the latter though the culprit appears to be a male. Fans of intense taut thrillers will appreciate Ruth Rendell's atmospheric murder mystery.
Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: The best crime writer anywhere in the world today - still!
Review: Ruth Rendell here again visits London, the place she is so able to render darkly atmospheric and menacing. There is a serial killer on the loose, and he has been dubbed "The Rottweiler" by the media, due to a bite mark found on the first victims neck, even though that bite mark was later traced back to her boyfriend. His only signature is that he takes one of each victims' personal items - perhaps a watch, or necklace - after having garrotted them. The latest victim is found near Inez Ferry's antique shop, and because of this the lives of a small group of disparate people will become drawn into this case and it's increasingly introverted investigation. For the police are becoming more and more convinced that someone connected to the shop - anyone from the exotic assistant Zeinab, who is stringing along a variety of rich men, to one of the tenants in the flats above - could very well be a homicidal maniac... This is everything that I expect a Ruth Rendell novel to be. It is, of course, impeccably written and psychologically excellent, so I need say no more about that. Indeed, The Rottweiler is another of Rendell's books that is entirely unique, in that for almost the first time ever she displays a delicious dark humour, veins of which run through the plot like black treacle. At times, this seems like a social satire, as she directs her gaze onto everything from the media to the often bizarre relationships between men and women. Her characters are also particularly noteworthy, especially the compelling Inez and Will, who is possibly the most moving character she has ever depicted, who takes a perverse, almost unregistered, pleasure from pushing away all prospective suitors for his beloved Aunt Rebecca, who desperately doesn't want to spend the rest of her life caring for her "simple" nephew, though is racked with guilt because of that. You would easily be forgiven for thinking that this is a serial killer novel, but this is really no more a serial killer novel than the Bible is a book solely about God. It is so much more than that. It's a book about the people involved, how they can be draw into darkness and uncertainty through the effects of the gravity of crime. It's a book about how peoples live always changed when confronted with the horrific. At times, the serial killings themselves seem very on the periphery (I was going to say "incidental" that that would be entirely the wrong word) and it is eerie to read about them in such a detached way. It's also interesting how we, essentially, only know as much about the murders as the characters themselves do through their exposure to the media. To be honest, it's almost impossible to review a Ruth Rendell book and truly convince of her genius and say what you really want to without illustrating it by disclosing important aspects of the plot or simply re-telling little aspects of the story, which makes the task I have very hard. But, rest assured, this book of a contemporary and chilling London and a small group of people within it is brilliant. It's a novel that questions, among many things, the nature of morality, how we perceive others and ourselves, it examines ideas of the human need for companionship, and the different forms of love between men and women, and it tackles, as many of her books do on some level, the problem of "How eccentric or odd do you have to be before you become a danger to others, or even yourself?" And yet, it is really about none of those things. Those are just tiny stitches in her tapestry, small but illuminating strokes on her canvas. It's about people, and the spider-web of life that connects everything to everything else. And I consider it to be brilliance in its purest form. The only way to understand this is to read one of her works, because there is no one else today writing books quite like this. She's our modern Scheherazade. I just want her to keep telling stories all night long.
Rating:
Summary: In a class by herself.
Review: Ruth Rendell once again proves that she is uniquely talented with "The Rottweiler," her latest psychological thriller. The title refers to a serial killer who, at first, was mistakenly thought to bite his female victims. In truth, he doesn't bite the women he kills; he would rather not touch them at all. He strangles them using cord or a similar object, and then takes a trinket from each body as a keepsake.
"The Rottweiler" takes place in a London neighborhood, and much of the action revolves around an antiques shop owned by Inez, a widow who pines for her adored late husband, Martin. Inez also rents out flats above her shop to an assorted group of tenants. We gradually get to know a great deal about Inez, her tenants, and her gorgeous employee, Zeinab.
Why is Rendell such a mesmerizing writer? One reason is that she takes the time to delve into each character's mind and heart. In the pages of this novel, we meet an unrepentant serial killer, a few thieves, a charlatan, and an alcoholic, among others, but Rendell does not merely use her characters as props. She opens a window into each individual's personality, and she lays bare his or her weaknesses, strengths, vulnerabilities, hopes, and dreams. We may not like these people, but we understand them.
Besides the serial killer plot, there is a poignant and heartbreaking subplot that deals with the plight of Will, a development disabled man who relies a great deal on his Aunt Becky for love and emotional support. Becky is Will's only living relative, and although she cares for Will, she would like to live her own life, free of responsibility for this man-child. However, she is crippled by guilt, and she can think of no way to break free of him. As usual, Rendell writes with dark humor, cynicism, and deep insight into the many ways that people destroy themselves and others, and she holds the reader in the palm of her hand throughout.
In Rendell's world, there is no such thing as fairness. The good are not always rewarded for their virtue, nor are the evil always punished for their sins. Why would we want to enter such a bleak universe? The reasons are simple. Rendell's effortless writing is both lucid and beautifully descriptive, she maintains a high level of suspense until the last page is turned, and she has an unusual and thought-provoking perspective on human nature. That is why Rendell has always been in a class by herself.
Rating:
Summary: Rendell At Her Best
Review: This is classic Rendell: a set of characters seemingly thrown together at random who eventually find their fates interwoven. The Rottweiler's main setting is a London building with a shop on the ground floor and flats on the three floors above. Inez owns the building and runs an antique shop there. She lives on the first floor, and three other tenants, with sundry hangers on and secrets on the next two. All of these people, plus customers, relatives, fiancees, et. al, wind in and out of the pages with their own little secrets, problems, and mysteries.
Although the book is primarily about a murderer and how he is eventually caught, there are many little subplots that are just as intriguing. Most of the characters, even the murderer, are likeable and amusing sorts. Rendell's policemen have a Keystone Kops quality about them in this book, which makes an interesting contrast to her superb Inspector Wexford series. Obviously not all of London's finest are all that fine!
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