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Original poster

what are Ruth Rendell books like?

58 replies

beautifuldays · 28/03/2008 21:03

ok i have read and re-read all of my agatha christies, and i know whodunnit in every book. i need to find a new author!
i love murder mystery but prefer the agatha christie stiff upper lip detective in tweed type, rather than modern blood and guts. what's ruth rendell like? are her books similar to agatha christie? trying to work out whether it's worth buying some or not and whether i would like them.

am definately more of a midsummer murders than a rebus girl iykwim

OP posts:
marina · 28/03/2008 22:24

Why are Dalziel and Pascoe SO much better on the page than on TV? I can't watch the dramatisations, they're so dire.
The books I really loathe are the Inspector Lynley "mysteries" (biggest one being HTF this woman got published in the UK)

Califrau · 28/03/2008 22:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

motherinferior · 28/03/2008 22:22

Oh god have just realised I've spent today outing myself on MN as Country Music Fan and Thriller Addict.

motherinferior · 28/03/2008 22:21

And she does a good serial killer, of course.

I am rather partial to that long DC Banks series. And very partial indeed to the divine Harlan Coben. And even have time for Dalziel and Pascoe.

marina · 28/03/2008 22:19

It's the commune in A Fatal Inversion
I know PD James is right-wing bonkers and always has been but I think I find her books interesting for that reason. A bit like Ayn Rand...

madamez · 28/03/2008 22:17

Ruth Rendell is very readable but after a while I started profoundly disagreeing with her view of humanity (which is not just bleak but wierd).
For cosy Midsomer Murder type stuff, try Patricia Wentworth - I;m not sure how much is still in print but they turn up in charity shops etc. For characters you will really get involved with and a wonderful ambivalence about the supernatural, try Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins books. Val McDermid is very good if you can rid your mind of the image of Robson Farking Green doing his usual impression of a man whose underpants are one size too small... Mo Hayder is brilliant but really really sick.
If you like Americans, Sue Grafton is lots of fun, Sara Paretsky great though the earlier books are a bit too po-faced 80s feminist...

motherinferior · 28/03/2008 22:16

Ecalpemos????

PD James also disturbingly right-wing, I think.

marina · 28/03/2008 22:15

not forgetting Christianna "Nurse Matilda/Nanny McPhee" Brand's wartime masterpiece, Green for Danger. Made into a fantastic film by Sidney Gilliatt too

marina · 28/03/2008 22:13

Oh choosy, I LOVE Josephine Tey, especially Miss Pym Disposes. It's such a shame she died comparatively young.

edam · 28/03/2008 22:11

PD James is clever-ish but too cold - no affection for humanity and definitely no sense of humour.

edam · 28/03/2008 22:09

Pull up a psychopath MI, and rest your weary feet.

From the modern gory details school of crime fiction, I like Kathy Reichs best.

choosyfloosy · 28/03/2008 22:09

Well, you want Dorothy Sayers to start with.

You might also enjoy John Masterman (e.g. The Moving Toyshop).

Also Josephine Tey - Miss Pym Disposes is a pleasant start. The Man in the Queue is terrific if you can cope with the constant talk of 'dagos'.

marina · 28/03/2008 22:08

Anyone else like Kinky Friedman btw?

marina · 28/03/2008 22:08

Now then MI, you're not at work now
Asta's Book is fab, agreed. But for me Ecalpemos is the one. Utterly chilling.

Posey · 28/03/2008 22:07

Marina - agree, try PD James. I loved Shroud for a Nightingale.

chopchopbusybusy · 28/03/2008 22:07

I'd start with early Wexford - although I too prefer her writing as Barbara Vine.

moondog · 28/03/2008 22:07

Oh i go for real crime if i want that.
Books with glossy blakck covers embossed with gold lettering about troubles adolescents form Kansas incarcerated in wooden boxes under the beds of trailer trash for years.

motherinferior · 28/03/2008 22:06

Seriously Asta's Book is utterly marvellous. (And made me think about my own Danish great-grandmother, who was exactly of that vintage in London.)

motherinferior · 28/03/2008 22:05

But nobody ever gets skinned. Or mutilated in unspeakable ways. How on earth can you really relax and put your feet up, eh?

marina · 28/03/2008 22:04

I was reading The Chimney Sweep's Boy while waiting for my c-section and have never forgotten it, likewise A Fatal Inversion
I think RR writing as Barbara Vine is very underrated as a novelist never mind a crime and mystery writer

Have you read all the early PD James novels beautifuldays? Her later books are terrible IMO, but the early ones are shocking and suspenseful without being at all gory

A couple of other cracking vintage reads: Trent's Last Case by EC Bentley, and Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles

Also, if you can get them from the library or secondhand, the fsbulous Flaxborough Chronicles by Colin Wilson. English village gothicism and IMO definitely pillaged for Midsomer Murders

edam · 28/03/2008 22:03

Have you tried Christie's contemporaries, btw? Sayers, Wentworth, Allingham, Ngaio Marsh?

moondog · 28/03/2008 22:01

Ooh yes.A Fatal Inversion is fab.

edam · 28/03/2008 22:01

Oh, Asta's Book was fab I longed for that dolls' house sent back/forward in time to my own childhood!

edam · 28/03/2008 21:59

There's something very comforting about Inspector Wexford. You know the theory that crime fiction is fairy tales for grown ups i.e. the puzzle is solved, order is restored, baddies are punished, all's well that ends well etc. etc.? Wexford fits that bill. Fitting heir to Miss Marple IMO.

Her Barbara Vine books are gripping and disturbing.

Blandmum · 28/03/2008 21:59

She is 'better' when writing as Barbera Vine IMHO

Love Asta's book