Reviews

• Classic Ruth Rendell. A chilling psychological thriller. She was a master at understanding human nature and mental health. This novel is a classic.

• A mixed bag of tenants occupy a large house in a London suburb. One of them is stranger than the others. One has a secret desire to strangle women. Not R Rendell 's best but the characters are well drawn.

• A Demon In My View by Ruth Rendell - I read it on Kindle An elegant, intense portrait of a psychopath and serial killer who lives among people who barely notice him. He keeps a close eye on them, though. Layers of interconnectedness link him to the other tenants in his apartment building, and his utter lack of social skills combine with his paranoia to sift out unexpected consequences. There is a student of aberrant psychology who’s having a long-distance affair with a married woman, her abusive husband, a gluttonous landlord, a drunk and his harridan wife, a flighty woman who loves all men a little, a lovely young woman with a child, a dignified older man, and others. At the core is an unassuming little man whose aunt raised him to be afraid of the world, who lives among people without understanding them, continually repelled by anything human, and with a store mannequin in a basement room dressed in his dead aunt’s clothes, a target he can murder repeatedly when he needs to vent his frustrations. He’s proud of controlling his impulses in this way and holds shrinks in contempt. As in the past, before he discovered the mannequin, he kills now and then, randomly, to relieve pressure, once his life-size doll victim is taken from him. This triggers a downslide as his control unravels and impulses seize him by the scruff. Genuinely insightful, well-researched, and creepy as any horror story, this is a book not of gore or salacious violence but of the terror of people-shaped predators among us. Strongly recommended. / Gene Stewart

• No escaping from the very start. The street becomes all familiar right at approaching the house, its doorstep. You enter the house being guided and acquainted to its inhabitans, its rooms its gloomy staircase and finally its cellar......

• I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Ruth Rendell very cleverly parallels the research and findings of the PhD student, Anthony Johnstone who is exploring the nature of psychopathy with the actions and thoughts of the psychopath, Arthur Johnstone. She weaves the different stories together until the climax at the end of the novel. Although the reader is always aware of the true nature of Arthur Johnstone, the solution comes as a shock and the suspense is maintained throughout. Well worth reading.

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