EXCELLENT
A whirlpool of secrets.
When Ismay Sealand's stepfather drowns in the bathtub, Ismay
and her mother, Beatrix, suspect he was done in by Ismay's younger
sister, Heather. Years later, a deranged Beatrix and her sister share a
divided London flat with Ismay and Heather. The family has never
discussed Heather's involvement in the death, and the unspoken
secret corrodes the family. Subplots swirl around this intense core,
populated by awful characters: Ismay's horrid boyfriend Andrew, the
manipulative hypochondriac Irene (the mother of Heather's suitor,
Edmund), and the delightfully odious Marion, who takes advantage of
anyone she can. At the center lurks an important question: will the
truth ever emerge?
Crown. 340 pages. $25.95. ISBN: 0307381366
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Christian Science Monitor CLASSIC
"[Rendell] delves into some of life's most mysterious
wonders: revenge, guilt, slights, and, most delicious, class warfare.
... This is a master at the height of her powers." ERIK SPANBERG
New York Times CLASSIC
"[Rendell] draws her characters with an insightful yet light
touch. ... The main mystery presented by The Water's Lovely is how
an author so relentlessly prolific, with dozens of novels to her credit
and another set published under the pen name Barbara Vine, can do such
buoyant, impeccable work." JANET MASLIN
Washington Post CLASSIC
"At 77, Rendell is in absolute top form here. ... [She]
provides the reader with many pleasures: her intelligence and humanity,
her sculpted sentences, her jokeless wit, her refusal to join her
colleagues in the torture-porn business to spice up her plots."
MICHAEL SIMS
Entertainment Weekly CLASSIC
"The Water's Lovely is one of Rendell's most
virtuosic, shifting seamlessly from tart Barbara Pym-style social comedy
to black comedy, to gothic horror, to romance, then back again. ...
While she never explicitly judges her characters, Rendell has crafted
for each a cruelly perfect fate, one that reflects, sometimes humorously
and sometimes tragically, the kinds of lives they have lived."
JENIFER REESE
Rocky Mountain News EXCELLENT
"Rendell is a practiced hand at this distinctive breed of
thriller and infuses her tale with a conflict as delicate as a house of
cards. ... In Rendell's world, characters expire and implode
quietly, with only the briefest moments of anguish in their terrified
eyes." CLAYTON MOORE
Philadelphia Inquirer GOOD
"What's missing here, as in far too many of
Rendell's most recent novels, is a sense of compassion. It's
not that one needs to like any of the characters, but one must feel
something for them." SARA H WEINMAN
CRITICAL SUMMARY
In The Water's Lovely, three-time Edgar winner Ruth Rendell
has written a subtle and darkly comic psychological thriller. The
prolific Baroness, who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is
best known for her Inspector Wexworth series (starting with 1964's
From Doon With Death), but she has also produced many excellent
standalone novels. Most reviewers wholeheartedly praised the book,
describing it as "virtuosic" (Entertainment Weekly),
suspenseful, and "gleefully energetic" (New York Times), with
a "head-spinning finale" (Christian Science Monitor). Even the
critics who felt it was not her strongest work had positive things to
say about Rendell's deft observations and dry wit. Fans of the
genre will not be disappointed.
COPYRIGHT 2007 Bookmarks Publishing
LLC Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2007, Gale Group. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.