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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Silence and suspicion,
By
This review is from: The Water's Lovely (Hardcover)
Ruth Rendell is one of the best of today's writers and it's hard to imaging her producing anything bad. Although The Water's Lovely is not her best, it's still head and shoulders above most of what's being churned out in this genre. Water begins slowly, with a recurrent dream, and as pages are turned, the reader is drawn inexorably into the mystery. Rendell presents us with two murders separated by more than a decade, but connected with the welfare of two sisters. Did Heather commit either of these crimes? Did she commit both? As is common in British lit, it is populated by individuals who are closely related, yet never have the courage to communicate their fears. As a result, their problems cannot be tackled head on, and tend to grow more and more complicated and hard to resolve with each passing day.
What is missing from this novel is 1) the sharp psychological suspense that permeates most of what Rendell writes, and 2) action and movement. This is a talky book, and its resolution relies too heavily upon facile, coincidental sightings, insights, and discoveries. These flaws prevent Water from achieving the edginess necessary in a story of this type; nevertheless it is a story worth reading and thinking about. After all, it's written by Ruth Rendell....
37 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dark Water,
By
This review is from: The Water's Lovely (Hardcover)
In a house on a quiet street in London, a wall has been built to seal off an old, disused bathroom. The family that lives there--two troubled sisters and their emotionally shattered mother--never speak of the wall or what it conceals, but they think about it all the time. It's ironic that these women should be so focused on a bathtub, because they constantly wonder--like Lady Macbeth--if they will ever be washed clean of the crime that was committed there....
Welcome to the world of Ruth Rendell. She is my favorite mystery writer, and THE WATER'S LOVELY is one of her best. That's all I'm going to say. Highly, highly recommended.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly chilling,
By Veronica (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Water's Lovely (Hardcover)
As a die hard Ruth Rendell fan I am always very excited when a new novel by her is published. `The Water's Lovely' completely lived up to my hopes and is a great addition to Rendell's amazing back catalogue of work.
The two central characters are Ismay and Heather, sisters who share a murderous secret. The novel follows the two women as they both find love and struggle to keep it. The book is about as far from a romance novel as it is possible to get - Ismay's lover, for example, is overbearing and boorish and Heather's lover has a poisonous hypochondriac of a mother. As usual, Rendell turns the thumbscrews to create a novel where the tension builds and builds to a satisfying if quietly horrific climax. The characters are believable and the plot is twisty and clever. Perhaps coincidence plays rather too big a part in the resolution of a certain plot point, but the book is so well-written and interesting that I couldn't force myself to care very much. Also, some of the dialogue doesn't ring true because ordinary 20-somethings simply do not talk in the way that Rendell writes, but I personally enjoy her use of language so I wouldn't want this to be changed although it is not realistic. The book has some very good subplots, such as the aunt of Ismay and Heather searching for romance and finding something much more terrifying instead and a woman who preys on old people for their money. There is also a real shock on the last page that is very thought-provoking. Overall, I highly recommend this book and I'm sure dedicated Rendell fans will not be disappointed.
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