Synopsis
The first young woman murdered had a bite mark on her neck, prompting the media to dub her killer “The Rottweiler.” As the number of killings grows to two, three, and beyond, that nickname sticks, even though it has become clear that the original bite was incidental. The Rottweiler is a serial garroter, distinguished by his habit of taking a small trinket from each victim as a macabre souvenir.
The strangled young women all lived in the same ethnically diverse London neighborhood near Lisson Grove, so it is here that the police focus their investigation. Soon their suspicions lead them to an antiques shop, where items taken from the victims start turning up amid the clutter. As we get acquainted with the odd assortment of characters who work in and pass through the shop, we sense that one of them will be the Rottweiler’s next victim...unless the meticulous killer makes an uncharacteristic mistake.
Ruth Rendell is in top form here as she deftly propels the narrative, alternating between the inner life of a compulsive killer and the daily affairs of those who live nearby, unknowing yet somehow aware of the unnerving shadow of his presence.
“Ruth Rendell has written some of the best novels of the twentieth century.” —Frances Fyfield
“Rendell’s clear, shapely prose casts the mesmerizing spell of the confessional.” —The New Yorker
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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
'... proving again that, in the world of contemporary crime fiction, Rendall really is top dog.' -- Sunday Times (Culture) 5th October 2003
'Rendell skilfully crafts her characters and they breathe feverishly through her imagination.' -- The Times 27th September 2003
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The Rottweiler
Seller: Sarah Zaluckyj, KINGTON, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Audio Book (Cassette). Condition: Very Good. Ten audio cassette tapes - audio book. Clean case and very clean cassette tapes. Complete and unabridged. Read by Nigel Anthony. Playing time about 12 hours and 38 minutes. Seller Inventory # 718961