DDC/MDS
| 823/.914 |
Publication
New York : Crown publishers, 2004.
Original publication date
2004
Description
Fiction. Literature. Suspense. Thriller. HTML: Mix Cellini has just moved into a flat in a decaying house in Nottinghill, where he plans to pursue his two abiding passions�supermodel Nerissa Nash, whom he worships from afar, and the life of serial killer Reggie Christie, hanged fifty years earlier for murdering at least eight women. Gwendolen Chawcer, Mix's eighty-year-old landlady, has few interests besides her old books and her new tenant. But she does have an intriguing connection to Christie. And when reality intrudes into Mix's life, he turns to Christie for inspiration and a long pent-up violence explodes. Intricately plotted and brilliantly written, 13 Steps Down enters the minds of these disparate people as they move inexorably toward its breathtaking conclusion..… (more)
Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Media reviews
«13 trinn ned», som kom på engelsk for fire år siden, er en av de fineste psykologiske thrillerne til Ruth Rendell. Hun har en uovertruffen evne til å beskrive det unormale slik at det framstår som normalt, før hun litt etter litt viser oss viser oss hvor skjevt personene hennes egentlig
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oppfatter virkeligheten. Dessuten har hun, som så mange engelske forfattere, en naturlig (og litt ondskapsfull) humoristisk sans, som gjør bøkene hennes ekstra underholdende.
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Rendell skruvar sin historia till det makabra :
Temat i Ruth Rendells senast till svenska översatta roman är livslögn. Liksom några av hennes föregående romaner, till exempel ”Gälla för död” och ”Rottweilern”, är Tretton steg en psykologisk thriller. Spänningen ligger alltså
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mer på det inre planet än på det yttre. Båda de huvudagerande, den 80-åriga miss Chawcer och hennes inneboende i det halvt förfallna Londonhuset, den femtio år yngre mekanikern Mix Cellini, lever i egna världar. Att få dem att passa ihop med den värld de faktiskt tillhör går utanför deras förmåga Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member PsibrReadHead
If only Hitchcock were alive to make this into a movie! Several times during the reading of this fine mystery the film "Frenzy" came to mind. The novel is wonderfully imagined, going deep into the recesses of the killer's mind via his internal monologue. Set in London and full of quirky characters,
This book is much creepier than those carrying the byline Ruth Rendell; it is more in line with those that carry the byline Barbara Vine with its gothic trappings and touches of horror. One of her best.
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this mystery is also a comment on the narcissistic times we live in and how that narcissism manifests itself in a killer abused by his stepfather while his mother stood mutely by; and in a lovely model, who, through her love-filled upbringing, is only marginally affected by the narcissistic trappings of a surface and celebrity-obsessed culture, but whose character remains, in the end, unaffected by it.This book is much creepier than those carrying the byline Ruth Rendell; it is more in line with those that carry the byline Barbara Vine with its gothic trappings and touches of horror. One of her best.
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LibraryThing member Bookmarque
As usual, the look into the demented mind was riveting and her prose and plot flawless and interesting. This woman knows how to build suspense. True suspense means I have to be suspended; waiting for the next tidbit. It’s the anticipation of the whole story after haven been given a clue is what
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drives her novels. I can’t think of anyone else whom does it better. Show Less
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
This is a story of obsession and murder and how far people will go to protect a favourite and prized image and idea of themselves.
Mix Callini is living in Gwendolen Chawcer's house, mostly because it's close to 10 Rillington Place wheree John Christie committed a series of murders. He's also
Gwendolyn is a woman who has been left behind by life and now lives in books, trying to hold on to the values of her youth in the face of modern England.
And on the face of it it could have been a very good book, but it falls a bit flat and sometimes you're just waiting for something to happen so when it does it's rather ho-hum.
Diverting but not her best.
Mix Callini is living in Gwendolen Chawcer's house, mostly because it's close to 10 Rillington Place wheree John Christie committed a series of murders. He's also
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infatuated with Nerissa Nash, a model who lives nearby and would do anything to get closer to her.Gwendolyn is a woman who has been left behind by life and now lives in books, trying to hold on to the values of her youth in the face of modern England.
And on the face of it it could have been a very good book, but it falls a bit flat and sometimes you're just waiting for something to happen so when it does it's rather ho-hum.
Diverting but not her best.
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LibraryThing member nyiper
The mixture of events and characters is wonderful as they weave back and forth to form an intricate fabric of happenings. It was almost like building a house of cards that falls apart in a little series of endings. Ruth Rendell writes absorbing thrillers that move right along---- she knows exactly
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where she is going as she writes toward the end she has in mind, pulling readers right along, providing little surprises with what happens next every time. Show Less
LibraryThing member kayceel
Mix, superstitious about the number thirteen, "accidentally" kills a woman, and falls deeper into his own fantasy life as he tries to cover things up. Interesting how all of the characters, Mix, his elderly recluse landlady Gwendolyn, and Narissa herself, have detailed fantasy lives, and all delude
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themselves in some way. Set in London, and I, of course, loved the accents. Show Less
LibraryThing member dw0rd
Inspector Wexford doesn't appear in this book which takes place in a multiracial London neighborhood. Characters include a trio of old ladies, a black supermodel, a fortunetelling fitness center owner, and recent immigrants and second generation Britishers from Africa, India, Bosnia, Iraq, and
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maybe other places I've forgotten.Their quirky behavior is sometimes amusing or quaintly odd but that can't obscure the fact that this is still a story of obsession and murder. Show Less
LibraryThing member edecklund
Inspector Wexford doesn't appear in this book which takes place in a multiracial London neighborhood. Characters include a trio of old ladies, a black supermodel, a fortunetelling fitness center owner, and recent immigrants and second generation Britishers from Africa, India, Bosnia, Iraq, and
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maybe other places I've forgotten.Their quirky behavior is sometimes amusing or quaintly odd but that can't obscure the fact that this is still a story of obsession and murder. Show Less
LibraryThing member Ant.Harrison
A return to form for Ruth Rendell with this dark and claustrophobic tale set in her beloved London. Taking some of her familiar themes - obsession, mistaken identity, mental instability and a crime committed in the past, Rendell expertly re-works them to produce a rich and compelling psychological
© Koplowitz 2012
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mystery. She has often said that one of her primary goals as a novelist is to produce well-plotted and exciting fiction, and this she certainly does. © Koplowitz 2012
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LibraryThing member featherbear
Something like the offspring of Simenon & late Dickens. Gwendolen Chawcer modeled on Miss Havisham? I'm a little too much like her psychologically. Inhabiting the mind of Mix Cellini is not a pleasant experience. Nerissa Nash-- interesting too have a not too bright and conventionally shallow
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character also decent and kind (maybe emphasized to contrast with the object of her passion). Rendell does not give much psychological depth to Olive Fordyce (Nerissa's great-aunt), Queenie Winthrop, or Kayleigh Rivers, though if there is any mystery it's their persistence, going out of their way, in caring for others who either dislike them (Olive & Queenie vis a vis Gwendolen) or whom they barely know (Kayleigh for Daniela Kovic). The cat Otto also seems Dickensian (Mix seems more Simenonish), at least the Dickens with supernatural leanings, as is the fortune teller Shoshanna. And the Dickensian coincidence of Olive being G.'s friend and Nerissa's great aunt, leading to the meeting with Cellini. One odd note: when Olive, her niece Hazel Akwaa,(Nerissa's mother) & Nerissa take Gwendolen back to her house, Rendell doesn't have G. note Nerissa's mixed race (mentally or out loud), which seems uncharacteristic. Favorite funny: G. deciding she wasn't in the mood for reading something as taxing as Darwin, and begins reading the Golden Bowl. Show Less
LibraryThing member MomsterBookworm
At first I thought that this was a copycat murder mystery because it involved a man who was an avid fan of a former serial killer. Instead it turns out to be a a psychological foray into the mind frame of the same man who turns out to be a stalker of a celebrity. The reader has an inside loop on
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how he thinks, what motivates him, the lengths to which he will go, the scenarios that he concocts, etc. -- and when one thread of that carefully woven web unravels, things start to fall apart. The way the story develops and concludes is plausible, but for a thriller, the plot is a little too neat for my liking, though I did enjoy the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member fromthecomfychair
Great audiobook, very convincing narrator. Thought it ended rather suddenly, though.
LibraryThing member Belles007
Holy cow! Ruth Rendell came up with some CRAZY characters in this book. I had a lot of fun reading this one.
Physical description
340 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
1400098424 / 9781400098422