Customer Reviews

Make Death Love Me

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4 star:		(3)
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Make Death Love Me is a psychological thriller about a robbery that leads to unexpected, and tragic, circumstances. It is exceptionally good and combines sharp psychological insights with a twisty plot.

Alan Groombridge is a bank manager for one of the smallest branches in England and he works with an assistant called Joyce. He has basically lived a dull, regimented and controlled life since his girlfriend became pregnant at the age of eighteen and they were forced into marriage. His wife is the most banal, selfish woman ever. Her father, who lives with them, is sanctimonious and loud and their two children make life even harder for him. Alan is hardly permitted any freedom - he loves to read but can only do this while the others are watching television because they think it is rude for him to read otherwise. All in all, Alan is a character that you feel extremely sympathetic towards. He is trapped in a loveless marriage by social conventions and his own cowardliness.

Neil and Marty find out some information about the bank where Alan and Joyce work and plan a robbery. Unsurprisingly, they bungle it and end up kidnapping Joyce. Alan, who has been fantasizing about running away with some of the banks money manages to do exactly that at the same time, although the police think that the robbers have kidnapped him as well as Joyce. The rest of the novel concentrates on Alan trying to build a new life whilst feeling guilty about Joyce who is held captive by the kidnappers. It also looks at how the robbers / kidnappers, Neil (a well-to-do kid gone bad) and Marty (an alcoholic), cope with the aftermath of their crime.

Overall, this is a super book. The ending has a certain poetic justice that is sad and meaningful and ties up the loose ends. The characters are believable and interesting and Alan is particularly likeable, as you feel so sorry and frustrated for him. I was delighted to find this paperback in a second-hand bookstore because some of the older Rendell books are now quite hard to get hold of. If you are a fan of Rendell's stand alone psychological thrillers then I would encourage you to track this one down, as it is brilliantly written albeit a quicker read that books such as Sight For Sore Eyes, The Crocodile Bird, Rottweiller, etc.

Loved it, wonderful reader! Got it on CD from my library. Unusual, genuine, and has many twists and turns, but not implausible ones. My first read from her, and can't wait to read more. Why is it OP?

Putting aside the books written under the pseudonym "Barbara Vine," there are two distinct Ruth Rendells represented by her novels under her own name. One is the expert weaver of satisfying detective procedurals with the gruffly appealing Inspector Wexford at their center. The other is as a writer of intensely psychological novels which include some sort of crime as an ingredient, but which are largely studies of the difficult interior lives of people of various classes (though most often middle and lower classes) in contemporary England.

This novel is an early-ish example of the latter category, and it makes quite a compellingly strong case for her talents in this area. If it is dated at all, it's only in that sense that so many novels and films from roughly 1967 through 1980 so often relentlessly featured profoundly dissatisfied, "lost" people in all walks of life, as though society itself was in a kind of moral collapse (we seem to have that again now, but I'm not sure it's trickled up to our literature and cinema yet). Has there ever been a bleaker portrait of suburban middle-class life than the existence of central character Alan Groombridge as this book opens? There is no dearth of a general sense of ennui in most of Ms. Rendell's books, but Alan's case is almost heartbreaking. His literary, even poetic longings in the midst of a soul-numbing domestic life are dreary in the extreme, and we as readers cannot help but root for him as an odd circumstance of fate gives him the sudden chance to break free of the prison of his home life.

Intersecting with his story is the tale of two misguided young men, hardly innately criminal types yet weak, impulsive and with some very poor judgment. It's a true gift of Ruth Rendell's that we grow to understand so well their inner lives, their histories, the chance circumstances which lead them astray. In fact, the book presents us with a handful of characters so richly nuanced, so thoroughly drawn that, for better or worse, we can't help but feel we know them well, invest in them and then feel the wrenching discomfort of watching their fates play out in this tautly compact and unsettling novel. It is both moving and ultimately disturbing.

It's worth pointing out as well that in this book Ruth Rendell is also exploring an underlying theme of the consequences (some tragic, some satisfying, some unexpected) that ensue from our hesitation to "do the right thing" in a situation wherein we feel conflicted. At so many junctures in the novel one feels "if this or that person would JUST make that call or do that thing, this could be resolved without such dire consequences," but on multiple levels people keep making the wrong the choices -- though to Ms. Rendell's credit, we really can believe their reasons for making those wrong choices in the contexts of their individual situations. She leads us to understand (perhaps the real theme of this book), how our personal inner conflicts cloud and damage our moral compass and our ability to make what might seem like common-sense choices. In the most positive aspect of Alan's experiences in this book, we see that if he could only have told the truth to a particular person he cares deeply about (and not instead invented elaborate lies to prevent being "rejected" by that person) the whole outcome of the novel have changed. Throughout the book, it is the hesitation people have at "doing the right thing" at decisive moments which drives the story to the complex ultimate ramifications of its conclusions.

This does seem to be the major theme of the novel. Without this realisation one might perhaps focus on how incompetent the off-stage police seem to be: day after day goes by with the police accomplishing nothing of substance. But this is not the point of the book. Yes, there is a crime at the heart of the story, but this is not a "mystery." It's a wise and haunting novel of people's strivings and failings. Despite a tendency (present in many of her non-Wexford books) to "punish" a character for striving beyond their present circumstances (sometimes giving her work an "Ethan Frome" quality in this way), Ms. Rendell always balances this by giving her characters a sense of dignity and individuality even while examining the quirks and flaws that all of us carry around with us. This is especially true in MAKE DEATH LOVE ME. It's a profoundly human story, with full doses of both love and tragedy. As an example of the "non-Wexford" work of Ruth Rendell, it's a very good example indeed.

This is probably one of Ruth Rendell's best books. If ever anyone needs an introduction of work at its peak then this title would be an exemplary candidate. It is compact and to the point; inevitable in its course of action, yet still, as in life, unpredictable. It starts off in an typically understated way but once characters make their choices, their decisions affect everyone's lives like a domino effect, and then the story gets rolling in a twisty fashion that almost goes out of control, and can only lead to good fortune for some and tragedy and sadness for the rest.

It is the story of bored bank manager Alan Groombridge who dreams of how much all that money surrounding him could lead him to a better life, away from his humdrum home with his nagging wife and family. Simultaneously two young men are in process of robbing this same bank that Alan works in. Unfortunately the robbery is bungled and instead of money, the two would be robbers end up with a young teller coworker of Alan's. For Alan it also provides him an opportunity to take the money himself and run away with it, leading everyone to think that the robbers have stolen the money themselves and taken him as hostage as well...

So what is Alan to do...now that he has the freedom and money will he finally get to lead the life that he's always dreamed away from his family or will his conscience get the better of him...?

I read this book around the early eighties while in high school. In the intervening years I must have read hundreds of other mysteries, most of which have long faded from my memory. But this one lingers on and haunts me like very few others. Don't mistake this for some sort of "slam bang" action book geared for a film script treatment. It is a true novel mislabeled as a "mystery" although without any literary pretensions that have marred some of her later books.

This book was a rare combination of suspense and heart-wrenching sadness. It made me cry.

Wow - I sat all day under the spell of this book, barely looking up from the pages. As usual, Rendell knows how to tell a good story and draw characters that you don't forget. Its been a week since reading it, and I still think of that poor woman in the end who thinks that her lover deserted her, when....well, I won't say more. This is one of the best I've read of hers, and hope to find more!

Ruth Rendell really understands human nature. When one thinks about robbing a bank, thoughts center upon what to do with all the $$$$$, not about the reality of the nitty gritty of not getting caught and sent up the river. None of the characters in this story is essentially evil. But the pressure of coping with the consequences of deliberate immoral acts affects each of them in ways they never anticipated. One thing leads to another and eventually it all goes haywire. Fascinating.

Like a talented athlete such as Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods (before his recent collapse), Ruth Rendell went on a period from roughly 1976 to 1987 where no one could touch her. Her writing was perfectly plotted, wonderfully pitched, and full of dizzying suspense and tension. With books like "A Demon in My View," "A Judgment in Stone," "A Dark Adapted Eye," and "A Fatal Inversion," she established herself at the top of her craft.

This book, came right in the middle of that run and is one of her best. Surprisingly, however, it was the one I had the toughest time tracking down. No library near me stored it and very few copies seem to exist online. What sets this book apart from the others is that the crime occurs relatively early in the book and the resulting tension comes as characters accept (or not) their new realities. Not a word or detail is wasted and not a character is spared from the ensuing events.

I told my wife once that reading Rendell is like listening to your mother and grandmother tell a story about people and places you never knew, and events that seem only vaguely real. As the story goes on, however, the tension builds and only then does one see that everything has a purpose and only then does one realize something incredible has happened.

Enjoyed it; not the masterpiece it's portrayed by some reviewers to be, but excellent for its type. Would recommend. (Part of the problem is that, except for a few contemporary writers, and, of course, the very ancient ones, I find there to be a "precious" streak in the fiction of most modern Brit writers; a frisson of sentimentality I find unappealing. Maybe it's caused by the bias of "class" - so inimical to the American way of thinking. I felt I was made to be very aware of the social status of Joyce, Allen, Nigel and Marty). In fact, social and economic class status are also inherent in the U.S., but it usually isn't a focus in our fiction. It dampens my enjoyment of some British literature. It didn't stick out like a sore thumb in this novel, but - just enough to (occasionally) curdle the brew.)