DDC/MDS
| 823/.914 |
Publication
New York : Harmony books, 1993.
Original publication date
1993
Description
An "obsessively readable" mystery from the New York Times-bestselling author of Dark Corners about a century-old diary that holds clues to a murder (The Sunday Telegraph). Asta Westerby is lonely. In 1905, shortly after coming to East London from Denmark with her husband and their two little boys, she feels like a stranger in a strange land. And it doesn't help that her husband is constantly away on business. Fortunately, she finds solace in her diary--and she continues to do so until 1967. Decades later, her granddaughter, Ann, finds the journal, and it becomes a literary sensation, offering an intimate view of Edwardian life. But it also appears to hold the key to an unsolved murder and the disappearance of a child. A modern masterpiece by the Edgar Award-winning author of the Inspector Wexford Mysteries, and an excellent choice for readers of P. D. James, Ian Rankin, or Scott Turow, Asta's Book is at once a crime story, a historical novel, and a psychological portrait told through the diary itself and through Ann, who is bent on unlocking the journal's excised mystery. … (more)
Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Media reviews
This is an engrossing double-detective story, a mixture of biography, true crime and romance peopled with vivid minor players and red with herrings.
User reviews
LibraryThing member posthumose
Title is "Anna's Book" in North America. Barbara Vine is actually Ruth Rendell of mystery novel fame. Good suspense from tip to tail although there is a much deeper story here. A Danish woman recounts the family's emmigration to England during difficult times and how she managed raising her
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children and coping with her loneliness. Her fisherman husband was gone for extended periods of time. Very likeable characters. Well written. No sex scenes or coarse language. This was my first Rendell experience. If her mysteries are this good they are well worth reading. Show Less
LibraryThing member Mr.Philip.Swan
My favorite Rendell and Vine - the best novel of mystery and suspense I've ever read, and I've read it 13 times so far - it's become an annual tradition for me. I could probably go through it with a highlighter and indicate all the clues, but that doesn't stop me from still turning the pages with
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complete fascination. When I queried Rendell about how she wrote such a complex novel with multiple storylines, she modestly replied "I don't know how I did it!" Show Less
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
Strangely I wasn't as compelled and enthralled by this book as i expected to be. It was a bit domestic and estrogen soaked for my taste and had too much about children in it. I just can't get all worked up about children. The journal parts were done well, but I couldn't relate to Anna (Asta) at
I wish the Roper saga could have been sprinkled in and interleaved the way Ann and Swanny's more modern stories were. As it was it derailed the already slow-moving train of the main storyline. It made sense to put it where it was given the mini-series angle, but i still found myself thinking that this better have a good pay off.
It did and in a marvelously convoluted way, signaled by the abrupt and slightly menacing entrance of an unexpected character. Minor, but key to the final solution. Overall I liked this and enjoyed reading it, but not as much as her first two Vine novels. I think it marks the beginning of a lot of experimentation that the Vine persona allowed. The Rendell name as a brand was well established by the early 80s and maybe she felt confined by it. A pseudonym is a great way to break out of a mold and try new things, The Vine novels are always surprising and that's why I keep coming back to them.
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all. She was passive, yet sly. Opinionated, yet unsophisticated. I didn't need to like her to find her interesting though, like a strange bug you find in the yard.I wish the Roper saga could have been sprinkled in and interleaved the way Ann and Swanny's more modern stories were. As it was it derailed the already slow-moving train of the main storyline. It made sense to put it where it was given the mini-series angle, but i still found myself thinking that this better have a good pay off.
It did and in a marvelously convoluted way, signaled by the abrupt and slightly menacing entrance of an unexpected character. Minor, but key to the final solution. Overall I liked this and enjoyed reading it, but not as much as her first two Vine novels. I think it marks the beginning of a lot of experimentation that the Vine persona allowed. The Rendell name as a brand was well established by the early 80s and maybe she felt confined by it. A pseudonym is a great way to break out of a mold and try new things, The Vine novels are always surprising and that's why I keep coming back to them.
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LibraryThing member bgknighton
Interesting, but a little slow. The mystery takes a while to develop. Lots of character development.
LibraryThing member Bookish59
I remember this read being excellent.
LibraryThing member lsh63
This is a great mystery/suspense novel from Barbara Vine aka Ruth Rendell who I just discovered late last year. This is the story of Anna, mother of Swanny, and grandmother of Ann who is trying to solve the mystery of aunt' Swanny's paternity . The paternity issue was revvealed to her until she was
I was very confused with the introduction of the Roper family and then everything became quite clear. But if you pay attention to the clues.....
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well past fifty, in the form of a letter. Her mother Anna cruelly vascillates back and forth as to whether Swanny was her natural child or if she was in fact adopted. Anna was a very self-absorbed and selfish woman and could not be described as a nuturing mother.I was very confused with the introduction of the Roper family and then everything became quite clear. But if you pay attention to the clues.....
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LibraryThing member jayne_charles
It's worth plouging through the initial chapters, where the central character Asta writes in her diary about life as a Danish immigrant in London. By the time the central mysteries (because there are definitely two) start to develop, you will find yourself going back to them and re-reading them for
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clues. This book is very clever - my favourite by Vine/Rendell; all the clues are there, as well as a few red herrings, and the conclusion is superb. Though it took me a little while initially to work out who all the characters were and how they related to eachother, in the end they stayed in my memory long after I finished the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member majorbabs
My favorite of her mysteries.
LibraryThing member Smiler69
It is 1905 and Asta Westerby and her husband Rasmus have just moved to England from Denmark with their two boys, with a third child on the way, which Asta dearly hopes will be a girl. Asta tells her story through a series of journals, in which she writes sporadically about various events,
The premise of this novel seemed very interesting, but I found the story very confusing, with two seemingly completely separate stories and families that had nothing in common somehow connected in a way which is only revealed at the very end. Perhaps this is a story which benefits from a second reading. Then again, perhaps my own mind is too muddled to understand a plot which doesn't follow a familiar narrative style. I also kept wondering why Asta's journals had become such hugely successful books, as they didn't seem to make for such gripping reading on their own. Don't let my confused ramblings about this book influence you though, because it seems to have met with a lot of appreciation with other readers.
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describing her family life; her marriage, her children, her maid, which make up her whole universe. Asta has an independent spirit and was not necessarily cut out to be a wife and mother, but she accepts her lot because other alternatives don't seem appealing or feasible. But this is only part of the story, because the other part takes place in a contemporary setting, sometime in the 90s, which is when this book was published. Asta's granddaughter Ann has come into her inheritance now that her aunt Swanny has passed away. Swanny was Asta's favourite child and having discovered her mother's journals after her passing, decided to have them translated and published with tremendous success. Now Ann is responsible for the manuscripts and intends to continue publishing additional volumes. But there are various mysteries to be found in what have become historical artifacts. Swanny was never able to learn the truth about her true identity after receiving an anonymous letter telling her she was not in fact Asta's child, something which Asta herself refused to confirm on way or another. Is the answer to be found in one of the volumes? But there are also mentions about a horrible crime which was a sensation in it's time, with Alfred Roper accused of murdering his wife and the disappearance of their young toddler Lizzie. Was Swanny that Roper child? And if not, what happened to Lizzie? These are mysteries which Ann and a friend producing a movie about the murder mystery are out to solve. The premise of this novel seemed very interesting, but I found the story very confusing, with two seemingly completely separate stories and families that had nothing in common somehow connected in a way which is only revealed at the very end. Perhaps this is a story which benefits from a second reading. Then again, perhaps my own mind is too muddled to understand a plot which doesn't follow a familiar narrative style. I also kept wondering why Asta's journals had become such hugely successful books, as they didn't seem to make for such gripping reading on their own. Don't let my confused ramblings about this book influence you though, because it seems to have met with a lot of appreciation with other readers.
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LibraryThing member VictoriaJZ
I didn't particularly like Anna but it was an interesting story although I had some trouble following the point of telling the Roper tale in the middle = it eventually all made some sense, but was a bit of a distraction.
LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
A rather long and drawn-out tale of two generations of women trying to solve a question of identity. I usually get quite engaged in Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine's stories, but she let this one ramble, ignored an obvious avenue of investigation, and included too many false leads for my taste. I did
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want to know who the killer was, and whether Swanny was adopted or not, but it just took too long to get there. A fair bit of backstory and repetitious explication could have been cut without hurting a thing. "Suspenseful" is not an adjective I'd use for this one. Show Less
Subjects
Physical description
394 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
0517587963 / 9780517587966