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Live Flesh Paperback – Import, 1986

by Ruth Rendell (Author)

28 customer reviews

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Why? Why did he do it? Why had it happened? What sort of fiend was he? Why should he, Victor Jenner, the child of happily married, middle-class parents, succumb to such violent rages? Why should he have needed to make motiveless attacks on women? Victor didn't know. But Victor did know that the last ten years -- the years in prison -- had been a mistake. He had never intended to rape the girl. He had never intended to harm anyone. It had all been an accident. In fact, his life had been a series of accidents, one mistake leading to the next. Now, out of prison at last, Victor still isn't free. The past holds him so he can't go forward. So Victor goes back -- and begins a new chain of accidents, a new string of tragic mistakes.

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Product Details

Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd; 1st edition (1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0099502704
ISBN-13: 978-0099502708
Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 0.7 x 7 inches
Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #669,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4626 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives
- #114234 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction

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Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars

5 star		75%
4 star		7%
3 star		11%
2 star		4%
1 star		3%

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Top Customer Reviews

A Chilling, In-Depth Psychological Thriller!

By Jana L.Perskie HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on March 26, 2005

Format: Mass Market Paperback

"Live Flesh" is not the usual crime mystery/thriller. It is, however, a thrilling psychological study of a rapist, Victor Jenner, who suffers from chorea, a disease of the nervous system marked by involuntary, jerky movements of the arms, legs, and/or face. Sometimes this illness is called "live flesh." Victor also has a severe phobia of tortoises, along with a multitude of other neuroses. Throughout the novel, he feels a need for psychiatric treatment, but never follows through. Typically, he blames the system for not providing him with therapy. He does understand that he has serious problems, though, and more often than not knows the difference between right and wrong. The inimitable Ruth Rendell thoroughly explores Jenner's motives, secrets, and complex emotions. She paints a chilling portrait of a man doomed by violence he cannot control. This is obviously much more a book driven by characters, and their development, than by action. The heart of "Live Flesh" lies in the complexity of Victor Jenner's personality and how he interacts with others, two characters in particular. These people are all steeped in a web of consequences stemming from one single event, a gunshot, which alters their lives forever.

Victor Jenner was convicted of shooting a young police officer in the lower back and permanently crippling him. He had been holding a young woman hostage in her bedroom, after breaking and entering her home, while escaping from the scene of an attempted rape. David Fleetwood, the officer, had been trying to gain the woman's release. Victor was not tried for the attempted rape, or the numerous other acts of sexual violence he had successfully committed. The police probably had no idea he was responsible for the crimes. After ten years Jenner is released early, for good behavior.Read more ›

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menace and incipient violence

By AnnaKarenina on September 9, 2001

Format: Mass Market Paperback

Ruth Rendell books are the scariest there are - not because of blood, gore and mutilation, but because they expose the infinitely greater menace of mental trauma. The number of Hannibal Lecter's in the general population is small - the greater threat comes from the more 'unremarkable' people, like Victor Jenner, this book's main character.
Victor has just been released from prison for shooting and crippling a young policeman. Coping with the changed world without and terrifying rages and phobias within, Victor is resentful, totally amoral, and feels he is entitled to whatever he can get - or take. Unbeknowst to the police, he is also guilty of a number of violent rapes, for which he has never been charged. The 'normal' side he can present to his social workers and employers is countered by the crashing and tortured screaming that others hear coming from his room, and he hears within his head.
Envious of the public admiration for his victim David, whose stoic acceptance of his paralysis has won him high regard and accolades, Victor can't stop himself making contact. To his surprise, David and his girlfriend Clare welcome him, assuming his motives are benign - that he, also, is trying to make sense of how the incident has affected his life. Victor manages to act normally long enough for them to become 'friends', but the tension of his scheming, David's skepticism and Clare's naive belief in Victor make you feel something awful is just around the corner. Away from his friends, all sorts of things in Victor's mind are starting to surface, and go out of control...
Ruth Rendell never writes a bad book, and this is one of her more original plots, no normal whodunnit. From the first pages Victor's incipient violence is so well portrayed, yet what happens is still a complete surprise.Read more ›

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Live Flesh

By Kindle Customer on September 10, 2015

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

What a sad book. Tragedy unbounded. From the first few pages, the reader hopes for respite and repose. But it isn't until the final page that all in question is made clear. Dear Ruth, This one is too much and not for the faint hearted.

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A GOOD READ

By C. Ann on October 27, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

An original. The characters are well drawn, especially Victor. The reasons I did not give it 5 stars are that I thought it unbelievable that David and Clare were so immediately welcoming and did nothing to protect themselves, and I thought the ending a bit abrupt. That being said I recommend this for fans of this genre.

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Rendell Does Creepy and Crazy Well

By S. Widtfeldt on January 28, 2014

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Ruth Rendell writes psychological crime novels from inside the mind of the madman better than any current writer that I have read. And as with many British writers, the descriptive prose accompanying the story line flows beautifully. I'm about to read my fifth Rendell novel, and have already chosen the sixth.

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What psychological fiction ought to be

By Mia on January 27, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

It speaks volumes to Rendell's talent as an author that she was able to take such reprehensive reprobates for protagonists and make their stories be such compelling reads. Traditionally I do prefer likeable heroes/heroines, but it just leaves me all the more amazed at how lost I can get in the tales of the amoral, charmless, pathetic individuals that Rendell used to so vividly bring to life throughout her prolific career. This time around, the miscreant is Victor, a man recently freed after ten years in prison for shooting and paralyzing a cop. This is an older book, one old enough to drink by now, so sentencing must have been very different. Apparently (and frighteningly) the views on rape were certainly different, because Victor's predilections are definitively that of a sexual predator, it's his primary coping mechanism for dealing with uncontrollable rage. Upon his release, he struggles to fit into a changed an indifferent society until he decides to reconnect with the cop, his victim. The fascinating thing to watch here is the inept attempts at happiness but someone who simply isn't equipped, emotionally and experientially, to handle it or any sort of normal life. He tries to buy it, steal it, fabricate it, which all, of course, amounts to the futility of dressing up a turd. And it's doubly fascinating, because this isn't someone from a stereotypically abusive environment, with a stereotypically abusive childhood. There is a tacit understanding in Rendell's books of psychology being such a delicate mechanism that plenty of things, from grand to minute, can throw a wrench in the works. Watching it spin out is what makes her books such awesome reads. Highly recommended.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

Simply good writing.

It is so good to find a book that is simply well written, tells a good story and has no pretension about it. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Hari Brandl

I did enjoy the reading through the ending

This was a psychological novel that kept me intrigued. The plot was quite elaborate and unpredictable. Read more

Published 10 months ago by also65

Three Stars

Good, but to much suspense, not enough action.

Published 10 months ago by Ron

A finely crafted thriller

An excellent thriller with a deeply pathological protagonist. Very suspenseful and, as always with this author, believably plotted and beautifully written.

Published 12 months ago by Lyle W. Heldenbrand

Live Flesh

An interesting read, but not one of Rendell's best. Not much to sympathize with in any of the characters. Ending was a bit lame.

Published 15 months ago by Pat F.

Rendell delivers a great mystery.

As usual, Rendell delivers a great mystery.

Published 19 months ago by Donna K. Harvey

Five Stars

Worth the read!

Published 19 months ago by M A Jernigan

good yarn

This book has an interesting take on a criminal's
point of view. Kept my interest throughout. Would recommend for adults.

Published on January 19, 2014 by BBurgDave

Amazing book

Consider that Pedro Almodovar moved this to Spain and made a movie of it ... you will start to get some idea of how very strange and wonderful it is. A fantastic read.

Published on December 27, 2013 by Deborah Morris