The Water's Lovely (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
by Ruth Rendell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ruth RendellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-08-12
ISBN: 0307388018
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of The Water's Lovely (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
Book Review: Take a dip, if you dare!
Summary: 5 Stars
Ruth Rendell belongs to that elite group of writers whose style is so distinctive you would recognize it anywhere. You could, for instance open a Rendell novel, not knowing its title or author, and after reading a couple of pages, know almost without question that this book is written by Ruth Rendell. What is it about a book by Ruth Rendall that makes it so unique and impressive?
First, there is the fact that Rendell is completely comfortable in her writing "skin". She uses language with crisp confidence, never hitting a jarring note, never missing an opportunity to find the right word or phrase that powerfully and succinctly delineates character, describes a scene, or ratchets up the suspense.
In Rendell books the reader is given undisputed access to the unsavory thoughts and feelings of people who, in earlier times, might have been described as evil. Yet it is not only evil people who lie, maim, or kill in Rendell books. Often it is people who seem to be living quite unspectacular lives who find themselves destroying the lives of others or of themselves, either intentionally or unintentionally. And the victims in Rendell's books often find themselves, like flies, blundering into webs that weren't there yesterday and wouldn't have been there tomorrow. In the books of Ruth Rendell, innocence and the best intentions offer no protection.
The Water's Lovely, Rendell's latest offering tells the story of two sisters, each with the desire to protect the other, yet each living lives circumscribed by guilt and secrecy. Ismay, the older sister, believes she knows that it was her sister Heather who drowned their pedophilic step father, although his drowning in a bathtub is ruled an accident. Heather believes that Ismay's delicate hold on reality makes her vulnerable and in need of constant protection. When Heather begins an unexpected and intense relationship with a man at work, Ismay is torn between warning Heather's boyfriend or depriving Heather of the love she has sought for years.
Because this is a Rendell story, there are numerous other complex characters well supplied with quirks and crimes, whose actions will ultimately affect the lives of those they are intimate with, as well as those they will never get to meet. The psychology of victims and criminals is always under the microscope in Rendell's world. Sometimes, quite uncomfortably, the reader is brought to the realization that there is not always that much difference between the two.
Summary of The Water's Lovely (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
When Ismay and Heather's stepfather was discovered dead in the bathtub nine years ago, the police concluded the drowning was an accident. But Ismay has always silently suspected that Heather might have had something to do with it. Now they're older and their lives seem to be moving happily forward. But when Heather becomes seriously involved with a man for the first time, Ismay's long-repressed memories can no longer be ignored. With painful inevitability, Ismay learns that she may not able to keep the dark truth hidden forever.Literature & Fiction Books
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