The Rottweiler: an intensely gripping and charged psychological exploration of the dark corners of the human mind from the award winning Queen of Crime, Ruth Rendell - Softcover

Rendell, Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099460246 ISBN 13: 9780099460244

Publisher: Arrow, 2004

Synopsis

The first murder victim had a bite mark on her neck. When the tabloids got hold of the story, they immediately called the deranged killer 'The Rottweiler', and the name stuck.

The latest body was discovered very near Inez Ferry's antique shop in Marylebone. Someone spotted a shadowy figure running away past the station, but couldn't say for sure if it was a man or a woman. There were only two other clues. The murderer seemed to have a preference for strangling his victims and then removing something personal - like a cigarette lighter or a necklace. Trinkets very similar to those mysteriously appearing in Inez's shop. . .

Since her actor husband died, too early into their marriage, Inez supplemented her modest income by taking in tenants above the shop. As her collection of antique trinkets grows, so does Inez's fear that she is harbouring a psychopathic murderer.

About this title

Review:

Ruth Rendell's The Rottweiler centres on a small group of Londoners, one of whom is, as it happens, a serial killer. There is never any particular mystery to the omniscient narrator, or the reader listening to her, as to who the killer is--the questions at stake are: who is going to fall under suspicion, whether the killer will be caught and why on earth the killer has this periodic urge to garotte a variety of women and steal an item of jewellery from them.

We spend a lot of time with some interesting flawed people--Inez, the widow obsessed with her late actor husband, in whose junk shop the killer occasionally dumps clues; Will, the beautiful stupid boy whose aunt is torn about the prospect of a life spent looking after him; Zeinab, the young woman who may or may not have a violently jealous father and certainly has too many fiancées. We see these people through their own indulgent eyes and through the more jaundiced, but hardly more accurate eyes of killer and investigating police--Rendell is intelligent about self-deception and inner lives and the way we construct parts of our own identity through self-interested disapproval of others. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

"Compelling and disturbing" (The Times)

"In Rendell's expert hands, you'll want to keep reading until dawn - with the light on" (Red)

"Rendell skilfully crafts her characters and they breathe feverishly through her imagination" (The Times)

"Wonderful at exploring the dark corners of the human mind, and the way private fantasies can clash and explode into terrifying violence" (Daily Mail)

"Rendell is unrivalled at depicting psychologically warped people and at creating unease through the simplest things. This is another triumph" (Observer)

About this edition

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0099460246
• ISBN 13: 9780099460244
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416