13 Steps Down [Unabridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Ruth Rendell (Author), Ric Jerrom (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2005

Mix Cellini has just moved into a flat in a decaying house in Nottinghill, where he plans to pursue his two abiding passions--supermodel Nerissa Nash, whom he worships from afar, and the life of serial killer Reggie Christie, hanged fifty years earlier for murdering at least eight women. Gwendolen Chawcer, Mix’s eighty-year-old landlady has few interests beside her old books and her new tenant. But she does have an intriguing connection to Christie. And when reality intrudes into Mix’s life, he turns toi Christie for inspiration and a long pent-up violence explodes. Intricately plotted and brilliantly written, 13 Steps Down enters the minds of these disparate people as they move inexorably toward its breathtaking conclusion.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Ruth Rendell has won numerous awards, including three Edgars, the highest accolade from Mystery Writers of America, and three Gold Daggers, one Silver Dagger, and a Diamond Dagger for outstanding contribution to the genre from England's prestigious Crime Writer's Association. She lives in London. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Sound Library; Unabridged edition (September 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792737512
• ISBN-13: 978-0792737513
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,136,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When you read Rendell, expect the best!, July 8, 2006

By 

K. "avid reader" (Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 13 Steps Down (Paperback)

Ruth Rendell is the reigning queen of the psychological suspense novel. 13 Steps Down does not disappoint. The main character, Mix Cellini, is a deeply disturbed young man. He idolizes Reggie Christie, a serial killer who was active in London in the mid twentieth century. The more he reads about Reggie, and he is all Mix reads about, the more he admires him and respects the intelligence it took to evade the police for so long. But Reggie is not the only person Mix reveres. He develops an unhealthy interest in a young woman model named Nerissa. In order to get closer to Nerissa, Mix begins to date a young Bosnian immigrant named Danila. Danila is quite alone in the world and it is a long time before she is missed. As Mix stalks Nerissa and fantasizes about their future relationship together the only annoyance in his life is his shrewish landlady Gwendolen Chawcer, a spinster in her eighties. And then come Gwendolen's friends, a couple other old biddies. whose meddling in Gwendolen's affairs when she is ill greatly hamper Mix's attempts to have the life he desires.

There is no piling up of bodies in this book, no horrible scenes of one ghastly murder after another. Instead, Rendell draws you into the lives of Mix, Danila, Nerissa and Gwendolen. She examines their motivating desires, their strengths and weaknesses. These characters become so real that you think about them after the narrative ends. And the amazing thing is that except for the Inspector Wexford novels, Rendell creates a new set of extremely well-defined characters, book after book after book. Highly recommended for fans of psychological suspense.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The British are so much better at this, April 8, 2007

By 

G. DeJulio "horror reader" (Wynantskill, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 13 Steps Down (Paperback)

Ruth Rendell is wonderful. "13 Steps Down" is the quintessential British psychological thriller of perfect pacing, believable characters and situations and crisp, witty dialogue that allows the reader to feel for and against the characters.

Mix Cellini is one of the most enjoyable anti-heros of the decade. It is impossible to view his character other than with humorous disdain as he blunders through the novel. His self absorbed and quizxotic quest of his crush, the supermodel Nerissa Nash, and the disastrous consequences of his quest are abusurdly disturbing. None of Ms. Rendell's characters are particularly likeable and they are all, to varying degrees, self absorbed, shallow prigs wih little concern for their fellow man. Gwendolyn Chawcer, Cellini's landlady and the owner of the monstrous outdated house is a perfect example of a shallow, self absorbed woman who worries about a letter she has sent to a doctor that she had a crush on over fifty years ago asking to see him again. She worries that he will remember that he was driving by the day before he met her and may have saw her and another entering a house of a particularly nasty person for a particularly nasty procedure. She cannot comprehend the fact that this event took place in the 1930s and would not have been in the forefront of anyone's mind but hers.

There is a particularly entertaining backstory about an old serial killer known by Ms. Chawcer and admired by Cellini that helps keep events in order and a supernatural? undertone regarding a ghost that keeps the novel moving crisply along.

The British are pros at this type of thriller, substituting plot, dialogue and characterization instead of gore and over the top action sequences, to make a great novel. Ms. Rendell, P.D. James, Josephine Tey are all worthy successors to Dame Agatha.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Rendell's Best, and That's Saying a Lot, June 16, 2010

By 

Olga Bezhanova (Edwardsville, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 13 Steps Down (Paperback)

Ruth Rendell is, without a doubt, is one of the best (and in my opinion, simply the best) mystery writers alive. It must be hard for this prolific writer to top her previous stellar achievements in the genre and avoid disappointing her readers. 13 Steps Down is not only great, it is also a prefect example of Rendell's writing at her best. I would say it is on the same level as her fantastic earlier A Judgement in Stone and One Across, Two Down.

One of Ruth Rendell's main strengths is her talent at creating fascinating and quirky characters. In 13 Steps Down, she manages to create one of her best casts of utterly unforgettable characters that will stay with you long after you finish reading the book. She is also fantastic at depicting a slow descent into madness experienced by her characters. What might seem as an inoffensive quirk, might gradually develop into a full-blown insanity.

This is not a traditional mystery where a dead body is discovered and the whole book traces the search for the killer. There are murders in the book but you will know who the murderer is from the start and will get to witness the crime being committed. Still, this doesn't make the book any less of a page-turner. Even though it is definitely not a whodunit in the classical sense of the word, 13 Steps Down is harder to put down than most traditional mysteries.