Author:Ruth Rendell
A classic Rendellian loner, Mix Cellini is superstitious about the number 13. Living in a decaying house in Notting Hill, Mix is obsessed with 10 Rillington Place, where the notorious John Christie committed a series of foul murders. He is also infatuated with a beautiful model who lives nearby - a woman who would not look at him twice.
Mix's landlady, Gwendolen Chawcer is equally reclusive - living her life through her library of books.
Both landlady and lodger are caught up in their own psychologically twisted parallel worlds. But when reality intrudes into Mix's life, a long pent-up violence explodes.
Ruth Rendell is back to her creepy best.
—— Daily MailRendell's eerie capacity to comprehend disturbed criminal minds continues to astonish.
—— The TimesIt's impossible to read the terrors abroad in her shabby streetscapes without total emotional involvement.
—— Sunday TimesOne of her darkest and best.
—— Literary ReviewIf Ruth Rendell were not slotted into the category of writer of mystery novels, she would have won the Booker long ago
—— Books of the Year, Evening StandardProbably the greatest living crime writer in the world
—— Ian RankinA writer of extraordinary imagination
—— Sunday ExpressThe striking gothic setting of London under fire proves fruitful ground for a bizarre dark comedy of an investigation... bawdy, unpredictable and at times hilarious, with a cast of wonderful grotesques
—— Maxim Jakubowski , GuardianFowler belongs with the mythographers of London: Iain Sinclair, Peter Ackroyd
—— New StatesmanIts combination of Grand Guignol and place setting does command attention
—— Metro LondonOriginal, moving and entertaining for adults as well as for older children
—— Julia Donaldson , Daily ExpressA deservedly acclaimed read.
—— Time Out London