Thirteen Steps Down

Rendell, Ruth

ISBN 10: 1491535377 ISBN 13: 9781491535370

Publisher: Brilliance Audio, 2014

Synopsis

From highly acclaimed mystery author Ruth Rendell comes a story of obsession, superstition, and long pent-up violence.

Mix Cellini (which he pronounces with an S rather than a C) is superstitious about the number 13 and has always felt dogged by ill-luck. In the house where he lives, there are 13 steps down to the landing below his rooms. His landlady lives her life almost exclusively through her library, blind to the neglect and decay around her. However, Mix is obsessed with the life of the notorious John Christie, who lived in the same Notting Hill neighbourhood at 10 Rillington Place, and Mix has developed a passion for a beautiful woman who lives nearby....

About this title

Review:

Like several of Ruth Rendell's other novels of suspense, Thirteen Steps Down is a book about a couple of murders waiting to happen. Mix Cellini is a half-educated mechanic specializing in exercise machines, who indulges himself in alcohol, self-medication, celebrity-stalking and an obsession with Christie, the Rillington Place murderer. What dooms Cellini, and his victims, is not so much any active principle of evil, as selfishness and a tendency to drift into things that does the job almost as efficiently.

The house where he rents an apartment is a wonderful example of the Bad Place; his eighty-something landlady Gwendolyn is another person who drifts, in her case into nostalgia and slow decay. Mix is a deeply modern monster, but Gwendolyn is one of the proofs that this is not just a bitch at modernity; Mix's potential victim, supermodel Nerissa, is charming, smart and blessed. There are a few too many coincidences here for Thirteen Steps Down to quite make it on to the list of great Rendell--her best books are more tightly constructed--but it is certainly a book which her admirers will want.--Roz Kaveney

Review:

"Ruth Rendell is, unequivocally, the most brilliant mystery novelist of our time. "
--Patricia Cornwell

"From the Hardcover edition."

"Brilliant. . . . Wonderful. . . . Remarkable. . . . A triumph. . . . Its final denouement [is] a miracle of irony and compassion." --"The Boston Globe"
" Dazzling. . . . Cool, dark, intricately plotted. . . . At once creepy, incredibly funny, and oddly moving. Grade: A." --"Entertainment Weekly"
"Brilliant. . . . Chilling. . . . A profoundly unnerving psychological suspense novel . . . that demonstrates Rendell's cunning artistry. . . . We'll never forget our visit to St. Blaise House." --"The New York Times Book Review"
"Rendell, the mistress of foreboding . . . twists to a high pitch, so that you keep on turning the pages, alternately shuddering and smiling. . . . One of the top crime novels of the year." --"The Rocky Mountain News"

About this edition

• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1491535377
• ISBN 13: 9781491535370
• Binding: Audio CD