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Tag Archive 'Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Traditional British'

The Babes in the Wood, 5 Star Product

Posted in Awesome eBay Auctions on May 27th, 2009

The Babes in the Wood

The Babes in the Wood
From
In the matriarchy of British crime fiction, Rendell is the weird sister; her novels concern themselves with the more darkly enigmatic corners of motivation. Her tastes in this direction have sometimes outstripped her readers, and her most recondite tales now appear under the pen name Barbara Vine. Rendells Chief Inspector Wexford mysteries are a somewhat friendlier affair, and in this, the nineteenth of the series, fans will be pleased to find the Wexfords staving off a flood in their garden and the Inspectors clueless elder daughter in trouble again. The plot—a series of puzzles surrounding the disappearance of two teen-agers in the care of a family friend—marches efficiently to its unguessable dénouement while demonstrating Rendells grasp of the psychological dynamics of seduction and exploitation which lie at the heart of the case.
Copyright © 2005
Review
Spectacular. . . . Rendell writes with a chill poetic precision. --The Washington Post Book World

Hard to put down. . . . Ruth Rendell is a master of the genre. –Los Angeles Times

-Subtle, mysterious. . . . Through flawless character work, Rendell transforms what could be a conventional suspense story into a close, and at times cruelly funny, psychological study of domestic disorder.- -The New York Times Book Review

-Wonderful. . . . Rendell, as usual, gives us more than a mere mystery here. Her novel is a multilayered construction in which a case acts itself out amid nature-s dark forces and the even darker forces that shape the psyches of the village inhabitants.- -Pittsburgh Post Gazette

-When it comes to the classic mystery . . . nobody does it better than Ruth Rendell. To her mastery of the traditional form, she adds a contemporary spin that places her above most of her peers and makes her Chief Inspector Wexford novels notable as much for their insights as for their puzzles. . . . [She is] a beguiling storyteller.- -San Diego Union-Tribune

Fans will be pleased. . . . The plot . . . marches efficiently to its unguessable d?nouement while demonstrating Rendells grasp of the psychological dynamics of seduction. –The New Yorker

It is the merging of the personal, political, and procedural where Rendell shines. . . . [The Babes in the Wood is] a good yarn, which Rendell spins with her customary casual elegance. –The Boston Globe

-Rendell-s gift for intelligent, coolheaded storytelling remains undiminished.- -Entertainment Weekly

This veteran writer does not disappoint with The Babes in the Wood. . . . Miss Rendell is a master of the psychological twist, and she throws in several before Wexfor… –This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Why Buy A The Babes in the Wood?
With floods threatening both the town of Kingsmarkham and his own home and no end to the rain in sight, Chief Inspector Wexford already has his hands full when he learns that two local teenagers have gone missing along with their sitter, Joanna Troy. Their hysterical mother is convinced that all three have drowned, and as the hours stretch into days Wexford suspects a case of kidnapping, perhaps connected with an unusual sect called the Church of the Good Gospel. But when the sitter’s smashed-up car is found at the bottom of a local quarry–occupied by a battered corpse–the investigation takes on a very different hue.

The Babes in the Wood is Ruth Rendell at her very best, a scintillating, precise and troubling story of seduction and religious fanaticism–and murder.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

Another Rendell masterpiece!
I am a huge Ruth Rendell fan, and this book did not disappoint me. In it we have a series of bizarre consequences stemming from the disappearance of two teenaged children and their minder on a rainy weekend. The book is set around a huge flood that hits Kingsmarkham, and we have Wexford watching the waters rising in his own yard as he gets drawn further and further into the strange disappearance, and the even stranger family that the children belong to. The book will keep you guessing until the end. Rendell uses the book to also air her views on sexual exploitation, fundamentalist religion and disfunctional families. You always get a lot more than just a mystery with a Ruth Rendell novel. This lady is a masterful writer. Most others pale in comparison.

A soggy, somber tale well told
After the messy nonsense of “The Blood Doctor”, our capable writer, Ruth Rendell is somewhat returned to us in this somber mystery and in the character of the very dour-yet-knowable Inspector Wexford. I seem to remember that a few years ago, Europe endured a summer-long flood of biblical proportions. Rendell uses this as the backdrop for a mystery involving the disappearance of a house sitter who is minding two teenagers whilst their parents are away for the weekend. Wexford is serious, the surrounds are sodden, and there isn’t a lot of action, but the story perks along pretty well and takes some inventive turns. You’ll want to slap the parents of the teenagers silly before the book is through. As usual, we get to see a great deal of Wexford and wife Dora’s personal life and in this book, Wexford’s daughter Sylvia, whom we have come to know through her marriage, children, and divorce, has a desperately unlikable boyfriend who becomes a key part of the story. I think that maybe I had a real appreciation for the endless rain in this book, having just survived one of the wettest years in Maryland history. I think Rendell does drenched very well.

You just gotta love Wexford
I am a bit of a boring person when it comes to the style and topic of books I like to read. I thought I might go out on a limb and read something a little different. Well I sure am glad I did.

This book is great. The characters believable, the plot totally supported with no messy bits that don’t make sense, lots of appropriate subplots, and suspense and teeth-grinding build up.

I won’t describe the plot, you can read that in other people’s wonderful reviews, but I will say if you like your mystery and suspense, then Ruth Rendell rocks.Not only that but her use of description is so right on, I pictured her characters with no problem-not always an easy thing for a forgetful Wiccan monkey :)

5 stars *****

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US $7.31
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US $2.00
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US $0.99 (0 Bid)
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US $1.75
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US $2.99
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US $26.83
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US $1.00
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The Tree of Hands - Best eBay Auctions!

Posted in Awesome eBay Auctions on May 27th, 2009

The Tree of Hands

The Tree of Hands
Review
The web is spun with fiendish skill. ? Observer

Domestic dramas exploding into deaths and murders?Threads are drawn tightly together in a lethal last pattern. ? Sunday Times –Sunday Times –This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Why Buy A The Tree of Hands?
Mopsa, driven by a past scarred by madness and violence. Benet, stricken by the most grievous loss any woman can bear. Carol, trapped in a life of crushing drabness no lover can change. Three mothers joined by a single thread of terror, whirled into a spiral of kidnapping, murder, and a final, reckless affirmation of love.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

Like mother, like daughter
Wow, what a book!I laughed, cried, got angry and was totally shocked at this book!The characters are so believable.Here you have this sweet, lonely woman who is trying to balance a writing carrer and raising a child on her own.Her mother: Bitter, confused and lonely herself believes that if you lose something….that’s okay…”I’ll get you another one.”The story takes off like a roller coaster ride and ends leaving the reader totally shocked.This book would make a great motion picture!Gary

Movie
Let me begin by confessing that I’ve not read the book! But I was reading the other reviews and noted one from G. Underdown back in February, 2004 that suggests the book would make a good movie. I wish I could reach him directly, but perhaps everyone would like to know that it has indeed been made into a movie in 2001, Alias Betty. The director is Claude Miller whose most recent film was last year’s marvelous A Secret.

The Mother From Hell

Eek! This novel is dark and intense–even by the standards of Ruth Rendell, the Queen of Darkness and Intensity. When a troubled young woman loses her child, her none-too-tightly-wrapped mother comes up with a horrible remedy (kidnapping) for her daughter’s anguish. This shocking deed causes a large cross-section of dysfunctional Brits to intersect and interact all over London, with even more horrifying results. Imagine a novel by Charles Dickens–with a really high body count.

Nobody does this sort of thing better than Ruth Rendell. That’s why we love her. And this novel is one of her best. Enjoy (if that’s the right word).

Here The Best eBay Auctions For The Tree of Hands

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US $8.98 (0 Bid)
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US $1.00
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US $2.99
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US $1.00
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US $1.00
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US $1.25
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US $10.06
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US $1.10
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US $4.99
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The Murder Room (Adam Dalgliesh Mystery Series #12), Highly Recommended

Posted in Awesome eBay Auctions on May 27th, 2009

The Murder Room (Adam Dalgliesh Mystery Series #12)

The Murder Room (Adam Dalgliesh Mystery Series #12)
From Publishers Weekly
Neither the mystery nor the detective present Jamess followers with anything truly new in her latest Adam Dalgliesh novel (after 2001s Death in Holy Orders), which opens, like other recent books in the series, with an extended portrayal of an aging institution whose survival is threatened by one person, who rapidly becomes the focus of resentment and hostility. Neville Dupayne, a trustee of the Dupayne Museum, a small, private institution devoted to England between the world wars, plans to veto its continuing operation. After many pages of background on the museums employees, volunteers and others who would be affected by the trustees unpopular decision, Neville meets his end in a manner paralleling a notorious historical murder exhibited in the museums Murder Room. MI5s interest in one of the people connected with the crime leads to Commander Dalgleish and his team taking on the case. While a romance develops between the commander, whos even more understated than usual, and Emma Lavenham, introduced in Death in Holy Orders, this subplot has minimal impact. A second murder raises the ante, but the whodunit aspect falls short of Jamess best work. Hopefully, this is an isolated lapse for an author who excels at characterization and basic human psychology.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From
After 16 novels, James is still able to find insular communities of professionals in which to set her crimes. This time its the staff of a quirky museum devoted to England between the wars. The piece de resistance of the museums collection is the Murder Room, in which are gathered artifacts from famous homicides that took place during the interwar years. Naturally, the room plays a crucial role, both as setting and as backstory, when real-life murder comes to the museum. It starts not in the Murder Room but in a garage, where one member of the family-owned museum is incinerated after being doused with petrol. That the victim was lobbying to sell the museum, over the objections of his sister and brother, only adds fuel to a fire that Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgleish is asked to extinguish. As always, James delves deeply into the psyches of her characters–in this case, the museums staff–uncovering not just motives and secrets, the stuff of any crime plot, but also the flesh and bone of personality. Her novels follow a formula in terms of the action and the setting, but her people rise above that pattern, their complexity giving muscle and sinew to the bare skeleton of the classical detective story. And none so much as Dalgleish himself, who now must contend with tremors of precarious joy as his feelings for Emma, a Cambridge professor he met in Holy Orders (2001), force a life-changing decision. James, at 83, has mastered the trick of repeating herself in ever-fascinating new ways. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Why Buy A The Murder Room (Adam Dalgliesh Mystery Series #12)?
Murders present meet murders past in P.D. James’s latest harrowing, thought-provoking thriller.

Commander Adam Dalgliesh is already acquainted with the Dupayne–a museum dedicated to the interwar years, with a room celebrating the most notorious murders of that time–when he is called to investigate the killing of one of the family trustees. He soon discovers that the victim was seeking to close the museum against the wishes of the fellow trustees and the Dupaynes devoted staff.  Everyone, it seems, has something to gain from the crime.  When it becomes clear that the murderer has been inspired by the real-life crimes from the murder room–and is preparing to kill again–Dalgliesh knows that to solve this case he has to get into the mind of a ruthless killer.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

Fast-paced, well-plotted mystery.
“The Murder Room” was the first P.D. James book I’ve ever read, and I enjoyed it immensely. The book is tightly-plotted and the story moves along at a nice clip. Most of the suspects are introduced early on in the story, and all of them had a motive for murder, making it challenging to figure out “whodunit.” I have to admit that when I read a mystery, I’m not very much into deep characterization of the main characters. I tend to want the author to focus mostly on the mystery or puzzle at hand and not go over the top with the main character’s personal life and relationships. “The Murder Room” has just a hint of these secondary storylines, and I appreciated the fact that the author kept the story focused on the mystery at nearly all times.

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US $3.59
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US $0.01 (0 Bid)
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US $9.15
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US $0.99
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US $3.99
Auction Ends: Wednesday Sep-08-2010 11:56:01 PDT
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The Meaning of Night: A Confession - Best eBay Auctions!

Posted in Awesome eBay Auctions on May 22nd, 2009

The Meaning of Night: A Confession

The Meaning of Night: A Confession
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Resonant with echoes of Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens, Coxs richly imagined thriller features an unreliable narrator, Edward Glyver, who opens his chilling confession with a cold-blooded account of an anonymous murder that he commits one night on the streets of 1854 London. That killing is mere training for his planned assassination of Phoebus Daunt, an acquaintance Glyver blames for virtually every downturn in his life. Glyver feels Daunts insidious influence in everything from his humiliating expulsion from school to his dismal career as a law firm factotum. The narrative ultimately centers on the monomaniacal Glyvers discovery of a usurped inheritance that should have been his birthright, the byzantine particulars of which are drawing him into a final, fatal confrontation with Daunt. Coxs tale abounds with startling surprises that are made credible by its scrupulously researched background and details of everyday Victorian life. Its exemplary blend of intrigue, history and romance mark a stand-out literary debut. Cox is also the author of M.R. James, a biography of the classic ghost-story writer.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post
Michael Coxs The Meaning of Night is the most recent example of what one might dub Victorian noir. As in a 19th-century sensation novel — think of Wilkie Collinss The Woman in White, John Meade Falkners The Nebuly Coat or even Charles Dickenss Bleak House — its intricate plot turns on the question of who should rightfully inherit a great estate and a sizable fortune. Oaths of secrecy, matters of identity, cold-hearted revenge, relentless subterfuge and mysteries of all kinds play their considerable parts. At one point, the narrator is frankly told that he should trust no one. The reader, too, might bear this in mind.

The sensation novel, after all, deals in narrative traps for the unwary and diabolical plot twists and innocence besmirched and oily evil laughingly triumphant (at least for a while). But Cox further darkens his own superb pastiche by imbuing it with a modern noir sensibility when he makes the character of his hero as unsettling as that of his villains. From the first sentence we find ourselves lost in moral perplexity, our sympathies unanchored and adrift: After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinns for an oyster supper. The I here is Edward Glyver, the ostensible hero of the book, a gentleman of the most contradictory nature. On the one hand, he can discourse knowledgeably about rare editions and Old Master prints, work with a fine sensibility at his photographic studies, succor those less fortunate and comport himself with an almost chivalric courtesy. On the other, he allows an innocent man to step to the gallows, regularly resorts to opium or streetwalkers to relax his nerves and consciously betrays a woman who loves him. Worse yet, he murders a complete stranger. What kind of hero is this?

First of all, dont picture Glyver as one of those high-spirited Victorian bounders we secretly envy or even admire; hes no Flashman. Neither is he the kind of charmingly amoral aesthete or the bold artist that Thomas de Quincey depicts in his perverse essay On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts. In fact, Glyver brutally stabs to death a total stranger for an utterly practical, existential reason: He needs to test whether he has the mettle to kill a man in cold blood.

Almost from the start, then, the reader realizes that The Meaning of Night is more than a plot-driven thriller; its also a study of psychological obsession. Glyver views his life as fated, as inextricably entangled with that of his erstwhile friend and now mortal enemy, the poet and sycophantic humbug Phoebus Rainsford Daunt. But is Daunt truly the monster that Glyver believes him to be? Or is Glyver peering into a glass, darkly, and glimpsing a reflection of himself? There are times in The Meaning of Night when one recalls those famous studies of a divided self, Stevensons Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Poes William Wilson and, most harrowing of all but least known, James Hoggs The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. As Glyver himself solemnly writes:

The boundaries of this world are forever shifting — from day to night, joy to sorrow, love to hate, and from life itself to death; and who can say at what moment we may suddenly cross over the border, from one state of existence to another, like heat applied to some flammable substance? I have been given my own ever-changing margins, across which I move, continually and hungrily, like a migrating animal. Now civilized, now untamed; now responsive to decency and human concern, now viciously attuned to the darkest of desires.

In fact, virtually all the principal characters in The Meaning of Night partake of this mixture of dark and light, good and evil; they disclose the truth only under duress, and all know more than they seem to. While Phoebus Daunt may be a scoundrel, hes also the acclaimed author of 13 volumes of verse, chiefly historical. Isabella Gallini may be an expensive courtesan, a poule de luxe, yet shes modest as well as beautiful, innately courteous, loving and, yes, hardworking. The unctuous, weaselly Fordyce Jukes, reminiscent of Dickenss Mr. Skimpole, carefully decorates his commonplace flat with exquisitely chosen objets dart. The wholesome, very proper lawyer Mr. Tredgold privately collects books and prints of a voluptuous nature, such as that notorious Renaissance classic The Sixteen Postures. Although Miss Emily Carteret walks in beauty like the night, she actually wears glasses and is nearing the spinster age of 30. (Whats more, she displays suspicious affection for her close female friend.)

In Coxs pages only the bit players are likely to be what they seem — the faithful school friend, the sadistic thug, the kindly antiquarian cleric. Still, the pale, sad Miss Lamb who visits the narrator during his childhood actually turns out to be. . . . Well, best not to say.

But one can say that The Meaning of Night ranges from the Edenic country estate called Evenwood to the stews and alleys of London, from idyllic afternoons at Eton to alchemical studies at Heidelberg, from the sanctuary of a great private library to the midnight violation of a mausoleum. Throughout, Glyver shows, again and again, how Phoebus Daunt has repeatedly wrecked his life, his hopes and his happiness. The novel is a story of retribution, the dispossessed Glyvers revenge on his evil daemon.

The Meaning of Night revolves around a long-buried secret — you knew that — and builds to a shocking surprise. Each of these is well hidden or well set up, but the first will be guessed by any confirmed reader of Victorian fiction and the second foreseen by any aficionado of film noir. Of course, one can never be wholly sure — a further unanticipated twist of the knife is always possible — and so one happily turns the pages, caught up in the grip of the ever-tightening action while awaiting confirmation of initial suspicions. Yet even when all the truths are revealed, the climax reached, and the final postscripts pondered, some readers are likely to close this accomplished novel with a smidgen of dissatisfaction. On a technical level, Glyvers key intuition about the meaning of sursum corda — lift up your heart — seems a bit far-fetched, and even for a Victorian pastiche the book moves slowly. But these are quibbles compared to that one inescapable fact: Though the major characters either get what they want or what they deserve, you really dont like any of them very much.

Perhaps this shouldn

Why Buy A The Meaning of Night: A Confession?

Superb…. An engrossing and complicated tale…that touches on every aspect of Victorian society.—Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinns for an oyster supper. So begins the enthralling (Booklist, starred review) and ingenious (Boston Globe) story of Edward Glyver, booklover, scholar, and murderer. A chance discovery convinces Glyver that greatness awaits him. His path to win back what is rightfully his leads him to Evenwood, one of Englands most enchanting country houses, and a woman who will become his obsession.

Customer Reviews & Opinions

The Meaning of Night
I am loving this book. I am a great fan of Dickens and the Victorian novel. This book seems to me to be a perfect combination of Victorian style, good writing, history, and mystery. This, to me, is Dickens without the stuff you skip over. I like that the characters are not all good or all bad but are nuanced.

A great read
i never read these kind of historical novels but this one kept me interested from the beginning. it really captures the mood of england, from the landscape, the class system, and the oppressive gloomy winter. more importantly, it’s a complex story of a man’s need for revenge from someone’s who has wronged him.

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Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple Mysteries)

Posted in Awesome eBay Auctions on May 19th, 2009

Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple Mysteries)

Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple Mysteries)
Review
Christie is hard to surpass. — Saturday Review of Literature

Review
Christie is hard to surpass. (Saturday Review of Literature)

Why Buy A Murder at the Vicarage (Miss Marple Mysteries)?
Miss Jane Marples passion for gossip leads to the investigation of a local mans murder. The victim was not liked in the least, and his death isnt raising eyebrows. But his recently revealed secrets are.

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