Customer Reviews

Adam and Eve and Pinch Me

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have read every single book Ruth Rendell has ever read. Including the Inspector Wexford series, over which i hold no shame about the fact that i don't like them half as much as her psychological thrillers. And this book is the reason why.

Personally, i believe that every sane person should read this book. Rendell is a stunning writer, and the way she mixes contemporay issues and events into the storyline makes the book so realistic, and so so chilling. The way she makes references to recent films, newscasters, and a whole other variety of real things which have actually happened is superb. She mixes sharp bits of non-fiction into thickly plotted fiction, and it comes out as more realistic than it might have been had she not.

The plot to this one is the best one she has come up with yet. i shan't just give a synopsis of it like some reviews do, i really don't need to read a synopsis of a book when i'm trying to find a review, so i'm sur eyou don't either. But just rest assure,s the plot here is a cracker.

She weaves brilliantly the supernatural themes into that of the real life psychology, and it works oh so well. IF she were a lesser writing, the supernatural and the detective side of it would both cancel each other out, but here she mixes each side with great sucess, creating a psychologically gripping novel which you just cannot put down.

Rendell is the only writer who can ever really chill/disturb me. Her psychology is so accurate, and the weird disturbed characters made to seem to real. It is frightening to think that people like that could really be living next door to you, living in your street, on your train as you go to work, on the bus with you, in the cinema with you, in the supermarket with you, ahead of you in the queue. That is yet another of her major strengths. She creates a chilling and disturbing book just by using realism and accurate psychology. It's all very subtle.

She is also excellent at the hoplessness many of her plots convey. the sense of the inevitable, the sense of the train heading toward another on the same rails, and an immiment collision which cannot be stopped. Things are going nice and slowly, events pannining out nicely, until all at once they crash together with devastating consequences for all involved.

Rendell's subsidiary characters are all great too. there are a particularly great "little and large" couple, who create a nice light break at times of high tension.

There are very few characters to like in this book, which may be it's only downside, however, a strength is that even though i didn't lke them, i still cared about what happened to them, and really really wanted to know more about their lives once the book finished. (Tami Hoag is an excellent author if you like feeling that sort of thing.) I was sad to put this book down, as i had waited so long for it. Two years since A Sight for Sore Eyes. I didn't think she could improve on that, but she has. This is a winning book, and it is clear that Rendell cannot put a single foot wrong.

She defines the word superb.

Because Ruth Rendell's last few outings have been vaguely disappointing, I approached this most recent book with a little reluctance if not outright trepidation. In fact, it sat in my bedside book pile far longer than a Rendell would usually have done in the past. But I needn't have feared...she's back in form and this is an absolutely fascinating character study of men and women and need and manipulation. There are several main characters here whose lives intertwine most unusually, and it is hard to decide who is the best-written of these. They all spring to life with their own unique collections of human foibles and motivations and they are all on a collision course, each with the other. You can see the train wreck coming, but you can't avert your eyes.

Ruth Rendell excels in her ability to describe-and shade-the various forms of madness as well as mental illness.
"Adam and Eve and Pinch Me" tells the tale of "Jock Lewis"-also known by several other aliases-who charms various women into believing he is their one and only. And he does this all at the same time. His victims include Fiona, a hardworking merchant banker; Natalie, a sharp journalist; Zillah, the mother of his two children and the only one who is totally on to him (and also his legal wife); and most memorably, Minty, an obsessive compulsive woman who works in a dry cleaning store. Various other sharply drawn characters surround the main ones including Fiona's married neighbors, an anorexic man and his obese wife.

The book focuses on the disappearance-and reappearance-of Jock and his subsequent murder. In many ways, despite his ne'er to do ways, he seems the most stable individual in the entire book. Much of "Adam and Eve and Pinch Me" is spent on the impact of his behavior on those around him and the choices these individuals are forced to make (Zillah, for instance, enters into a bigamous marriage with a gay politician to support her children.)

I recommend this book for those individuals who are fans of Rendell's and the English mystery genre. I caution readers that this is not your typical "Who dunnit?"--in many ways it is a "Why did he or she do it and who else could have?"

Ruth Rendell's Adam and Eve and Pinch Me has all the ingredients that have made her novels so compelling but, in this one, the parts do not make for as fulfilling a whole as one expects from such a skilled writer. There is the usual cast of fascinating (not likeable) characters with more than the usual assortment of compulsions and deceits driving them and the plot. At times, the quirks seem a little forced as even very minor characters are burdened with a glaring oddity or two, taking the heat from the major characters. The suspense is toned down to focus on the psychology and too much of the plot is telegraphed. A tighter, narrower focus on a lesser number of characters could have been more compelling. It is still a good read but not as good as one should expect from the author of the wonderful Wexford series, as well as her other delicious, weird mysteries.

I have always known the expression as Adam and Eve and Punch me, this is apparently the British equivalent. It is s a thrilling read.

We feel special to our mates, so it is a shock to discover an affair going on, the plot many writers use as a resort.
However, Ruth Rendell uses it as a recourse of a different colour. When Araminta Knox learns of the death of her ex, (is he really dead?) other women learn too that this dark-haired man, Jock Lewis, fits the description of a man they knew who fleeced them, a con, a thief, and about as suitable a partner as Bin Laden to your daughter.

Enter a ghost or two, one so scary Minty starts to carry a knife. She is obsessive, and hears voices. Rendell explores the psyche of her characters who reside in and around London, where a serial killer appears to be at gruesome work.

Throughout, this is a strong, suspenseful, psychological thriller.

This is another absolute winner from Ruth Rendell, my favourite novelist of all time. Of all her books, this is possibly her very very best. It is an amazing portrait of damaged characters forced into dangerous situations, the results of which can only be a tragedy. She displays the catastrohpic inevitability of events already set in motion with a depressing and disturbing reality. It is unsetlling to think that already our lives could be on course for a crash, by perhaps being set to meet a character similar to those in her books...those characters whose smallest actiosn can bring their own worlds, and the worlds od those around them, falling to the ground.
She describes contemporary life excellently, and she draws her characters perfectly. Their downright weirdness is entirely realistic, which comes as a surprise, and a pleasure, as many authors are not able to write authentically and realisticaly about the kinds of characters that Rendell does.

The plot is complex, and at the end she draws all the strands tightly together with the ability of the seasoned and consumate professional that she is. It's a thrilling and entirely suspenseful book, the type of suspense that only Rendell seems capable of creating, via the slow yet enthralling unravelling of her plots. The addition of aspects of the supernatural into the plot only add another layer of chilliness and strangeness to this brilliant book. The mystery and supernatural threads compliment each other incredibly well. The climax is understated and shocking, leaving us, as do all the best books, wanting to know more about the characters and what is to happen to them.

It is also written so well that it should please not just any fan of Rendell, or just any kind of crime fiction, but anyone interested in more "literary" fiction. Rendell has deserved the Booker prize for many of her books, this one is no exception, and it is a great injustice that she will not get it. I long for the day when the literary world recognises the true talent of Ruth Rendell.

I found this a fascinating read, but more of a character study of dysfunction than a mystery.
At the heart of this story is Jock, also known as Jeff or Jerry, a ne'er do well always looking for a free lunch. His girlfriend du jour is always well-off, and willing to keep him.
The three women at the forefront of this novel have very little in common, except that they all have fallen head over heels for Jock, or Jerry, or whatever he decides his name is! What we do discover about these women, and those people who are close to them, are the various dysfunctions and quirks that manifest themselves as the story progresses.
I don't think I would characterize this book as a mystery, as there is very little kept secret from the reader. As a novel, however, it is very good, and Rendell's depictions of her characters are fascinating.

Ruth Rendell has earned several Edgar awards including a Grand Master Award for the crafting of brilliant mysteries. In "Adam and Eve and Pinch Me", she is again in top form. However, this is not really a mystery. You are told who commits the murder. This is rather a romp through a world of madness, illusion and deceit.

The suspense is created by watching and waiting for the police to discover the killer. The allure of the story lies in the actions of the multidimensional characters that Rendell has created. Each character has some secrete hidden away waiting to be discovered.

The story revolves around a wonderfully charming, devastatingly handsome and amoral conman Jock also known as Jerry Leach or Jeff Leigh. The trouble all starts when Jock's obsessive-compulsive girlfriend, Minty, thinks he is killed in a train crash. She becomes certain that his ghost is following her around and is determined to rid herself of the apparition.

However, Jock isn't dead but very much alive. He staged his death to move on to another unsuspecting lady, a successful banker. His only legal wife knows that he is really alive but she sees this false death as a chance for her to marry a wealthy conservative member of Parliament, who is also hiding a secrete that could ruin his political career.

The story begins to build toward its climax when Jock is found stabbed to death in a cinema. As his death is discovered and the hunt for the killer begins, Jack's lies unravel exposing not only his secrets but also those of the people around him. These discovered truths will destroy some lives, but it will rebuild others.

I enjoyed this book tremendously and I recommend it highly.

Judith Woolcock Colombo: Author of The Fablesinger & Night Crimes

Jerry Leach makes his living victimizing women. A true sociopath, he leads them on, sucks them dry and then leaves them. At the beginning of the novel, he is married to Zillah, engaged to Fiona, and has just recently left Minty. Minty is not too well balanced to begin with, she seems to have some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder. When Jock (as she knows him)leaves her, taking her life savings, she begins to see and hear ghosts. Jock is among these, he sent her a letter saying that he had died in a train crash. He also sent one to his wife, who takes the opportunity to remarry, to a gay MP in need of a cover. In return, she gets the security that she has always wanted for herself and her two children.

Minty sees what she thinks is Jock's ghost in a movie theater one night and stabs him to death. Fiona is heartbroken, and inadvertantly steers the police in her neighbor's direction. Matthew is a writer who suffers from anorexia and writes a column and hosts a TV show on the subject. His wife Michelle is a morbidly obese woman, obsessed with bringing her husband back to health. They both saw Jeff(the name he gave himself here) for what he was and disliked him. Natalie, another old flame of Jeff's, is a journalist who sees this all as the story that will bring her fame.

The author deftly intertwines all of these women and their stories. It is amazing just how much damage one cad can cause. He seems to pick damaged people and preys on their weaknesses, and there are a great many to be found her. Obsessive-compulsives, codependents, anorectics, schizophrenia, sociopaths, it seems to be a veritable abnormal psych textbook. I had a hard time putting this one down to even eat or sleep. Facinating.

Like most other Ruth Rendell books this is an enjoyable read with a complex plot and entertaining characters, but I only give it four stars, because it was ultimately disappointing - there are no last minute surprises, all the events that take place, and the ways the characters lives will intersect can be easily predicted. There also were a few plot elements I found quite unbelievable - for example why on earth would a rich gay Tory MP marry a working class single mother like Zillah? Surely with all his money he could find a far more suitable person to take part in a marriage of convenience. Also I liked the character Minty at first but by the end of the novel she reminded me too much of Dora from 'The Killing Doll'. I would recommend the novel to anyone who likes a good read, but would warn fans of suspense and mystery not to expect too much - this has none of the plot twists and turns of her earlier Barbara Vine books.