Status
Available
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Publication
Helsinki: WSOY, 2003.
Description
Martin Urban is a quiet bachelor with a comfortable life, free of worry and distractions. When he unexpectedly comes into a small fortune, he decides to use his newfound wealth to help out those in need. Finn also leads a quiet life, and comes into a little money of his own. Normally, their paths would never have crossed. But Martin's ideas about who should benefit from his charitable impulses yield some unexpected results, and soon the good intentions of the one become fatally entangled with the mercenary nature of the other.--Publisher description.
User reviews
LibraryThing member swl
Published in 1980, this book felt a bit dated. (Eerie, since I graduated high school in '81, that so many things should feel "stale".) But that only added to its sort of otherworldly morality tale feel. (Also, it's set in the UK, which invariably seems exotic to this midwestern gal. One of these
Loved the complex, dark plot, in which characters' relationships are either misrepresented, misinterpreted, or based not on love but on other, less-worthy emotions. They are beautifully drawn, quite vivid in my imagination. While I wouldn't want to live in or even visit the world RR created, it was fascinating to read. I'll try another of her books.
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days I really have to find out what "council housing" is, for instance.)Loved the complex, dark plot, in which characters' relationships are either misrepresented, misinterpreted, or based not on love but on other, less-worthy emotions. They are beautifully drawn, quite vivid in my imagination. While I wouldn't want to live in or even visit the world RR created, it was fascinating to read. I'll try another of her books.
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LibraryThing member rsummer
Ruth Rendell deserves the praise she has garnered over the years. This is a well constructed tale of flawed people intersecting each others lives. Even though it was published over 30 years ago, it still stands up today.
LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
Ruth Rendell was once a favorite author of mine but I have found that her writing and plots in her later books became a little stodgy and judgmental. With this read, I went back to one of her earlier books, The Lake of Darkness, to see it still had that dark edge that I enjoyed in her writing. I am
This author excels in interlocking plots where the reader can see that a collusion is inevitable but the fun is in the getting there. While the characters in Lake of Darkness are a fairly unlikable crew, the story grabs hold and a revenge plot is slowly revealed. Tim feels that the priggish accountant, Martin, would not have had his big win in the football pools without his help but Martin has decided not to tell Tim of the win. Martin does try to give a large chunk of his money to needy people, but this does not always go smoothly and one of his charity cases brings the psychotic serial killer, Finn, into the mix.
I found Lake of Darkness an entertaining thriller that started slowly but built a lot of momentum as the story escalated. The writing is good, the dialogue hits all the right notes and as the story originated in 1980, the setting of 1980’s London and it’s housing problems is interesting. I would certainly recommend that if one is interested in reading this author, that they start with one of her earlier books rather than the ones that were published later.
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happy to report that, for the most part, it did. This author excels in interlocking plots where the reader can see that a collusion is inevitable but the fun is in the getting there. While the characters in Lake of Darkness are a fairly unlikable crew, the story grabs hold and a revenge plot is slowly revealed. Tim feels that the priggish accountant, Martin, would not have had his big win in the football pools without his help but Martin has decided not to tell Tim of the win. Martin does try to give a large chunk of his money to needy people, but this does not always go smoothly and one of his charity cases brings the psychotic serial killer, Finn, into the mix.
I found Lake of Darkness an entertaining thriller that started slowly but built a lot of momentum as the story escalated. The writing is good, the dialogue hits all the right notes and as the story originated in 1980, the setting of 1980’s London and it’s housing problems is interesting. I would certainly recommend that if one is interested in reading this author, that they start with one of her earlier books rather than the ones that were published later.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1980
Physical description
250 p.; 18 cm
ISBN
9510117544 / 9789510117545