The Girl Next Door: A Novel

I feel like Ive read a million of this authors books. The are just satisfying enuf that I buy one everytime I get desperate for something to read. I feel like the English culture doesnt translate as well for Ms Rendell as for some others.

This book was about two crimes. One a double revenge homocide and one a crime of unrequited lust. Because of the frequent flashbacks it was necessary to continually identify the many characters. The climax seemed underwhelming.

Alot of books I breeze right through. I have been trying to finish this book for two months now and just can't seem to do it. I hate giving up on it, never have yet this might be the first.. Started off good but stuck in the middle of the story...

Very disappointed in this book. No real suspense. Too much focus placed on the various locations in and around London, I felt like I needed a map. It really didn't lend to the story. It was a coming of age story but the characters were a tad too old in my opinion.

I truly enjoyed this read...had a hard time putting it down. Ruth Rendell keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout! I'm going to go back and purchase a few more of her books. I like her as much as Patterson, Baldacci, King and others.

I truly enjoyed this read...had a hard time putting it down. Ruth Rendell keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout! I'm going to go back and purchase a few more of her books. I like her as much as Patterson, Baldacci, King and others.

Weak ending with all the words spent on psychology of these women surely something less predicable could have come out of the ending rather than the old boy kills girl because she is pregnant and he only wanted a fling.

A CONFUSED LIST OF FAMILY NAMES AND RELATIONS. WE KNOW SINCE THE BEGINNING WHO KILLED WHOM.. WHAT'S IN I TO INTEREST ANYBODY?/ I`M SORRY, I KNOW THE AUTHOR WAS DECEASED RECENTLY AND ONE SHOULD NOT SAY BAD THINGS ABOUT DEAD PEOPLE, BUT...

PLEASE find the review I THOUGHT was written for the book - The Girl Next Door -...but it got posted under a kindle case I purchased??? by mistake. I don't wan to took like an idiot foe making this mistake (but maybe I am) Hope you can correct this in time!!

I have read very many Ruth Rendell / Barbara Vine books and have enjoyed most of them. Unfortunately, the word "enjoyed" does not apply to this one. It may well be one of the most depressing books I have ever read. I gave it a 2 star rating because it is well written, but I sincerely cannot recommend it.

This is closer to a novel of manners than a murder mystery, as a group of childhood friends are reunited in their 70s when a box containing two skeleton hands is found in their old play area. An early scene in the book reminded me of The Famous Five, with the older people sitting around being interviewed by a policeman about what they had noticed while playing all those years ago.
While the reader already knows the identity of the victims and the murderer, the friends have no idea... they are each more preoccupied by the impact of their reunion. Alan Norris starts daydreaming about his first love, Daphne, who is dazzling and glamorous in contrast to his dull and predictable wife Rosemary; Michael is steeling himself to meet his 99-year old father, who abandoned him as a child. The other couples are facing the inevitable health decline of old age, but one of the beautiful aspects of this book is that all the characters are still learning and growing and participating actively in life. None of them are defined by their age, even though their adult children and grandchildren are quick to dismiss any unpredictable behaviour as "Alzheimers".
The strongest and most engaging thread in the story is the "love triangle" between Rosemary, Alan and Daphne. This story makes a few surprising twists and turns, ending with a satisfying and believable conclusion. While I always enjoy Rendell's books, The Girl Next Door has a fresh and original style, and the intriguing, deceptively simple plot is handled with skill.

This novel, more literary than traditional crime fiction, veers between the present and the past. During the Second World War a group of children in Loughton, Essex, played together in some underground tunnels they found and renamed ‘the qanats.’ Nobody really remembers why, but time has passed and the group of children have grown up, grown old and, mostly, dispersed. However, the discovery of a pair of severed hands, buried in a biscuit tin so long ago, now brings many of those who played there so long ago back together again. Daphne Jones, three times married and still glamorous, Michael Winwood, whose father chased them from the tunnels and Lewis Newman, both now widowed, childhood sweethearts Alan Norris and Rosemary Wharton and the Batchelors – of whom George, Stanley and Norman are still alive.

The police are asked to investigate the crime – of which the reader is already aware of both victims and murderer . However, this book is more about the impact of the discovery and of unearthing old memories on those involved. In many ways this is a poignant and touching read – of both how age limits and frees us. It reunites old lovers, wreaks huge changes and forces people to confront their loss and childhood traumas. Ruth Rendell manages to make all the characters sympathetic, so you really care about what happens to them. Despite the length of time between the crime and the investigation, making even the police involved cynical about finding a conclusion, there is little doubt that confronting what happened at that time will help solve unanswered questions, make some characters doubt the way they are living their lives and, in some cases, make enormous changes. I really enjoyed this novel, even though it was not a traditional ‘whodunnit’ and it made me question why I have not read more of Ruth Rendell’s novels. Luckily, that is something I can, and do, intend to rectify. Lastly, I received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.

I have always been a huge fan of both Rendall and Barbara Vine and thought this was more the latter than the former - cleverly composed but if you are over 55 the sensitively written details of old age become more disturbing and I found this an old persons book - a book for Senior Citizens - if there were to be such a category in the library, it would belong there - I could smell the old age in it. Very clever but depressing in that respect . In one way I applaud her insight into this age group but on the other hand, I felt i had strayed into my 97 year old's rest home - a certain pervading atmosphere that I am not sure I want to explore yet.

As a big fan of Rendell and a big fan of mysteries, I have never before finished reading a book and said to myself "I don't know how I feel about this." I cannot accept the glowing reader-reviews, nor the ones that said it was her worst book ever. The first chapters are strong, and I excitedly told friends it was top-level Rendell. But after the murder, the only mystery is when will she pull her twist in the story. It never happens. The story follows several senior citizens, who knew each other as children, and their futures intertwine more than their childhoods. The relationship of Alan and Rosemary dominates the novel, especially when he leaves her for Daphne. Rosemary's transformation from meek housewife to attempted murderer just does not ring true. Rendell overpopulates the story with their daughters, granddaughters, who hover around Rosemary, more like bluejays fluttering around an endangered nest than real characters, and none are relevant to the plot. Also at the forefront is Michael, son of the murderer, who reveals what an utterly despicable man his father was and is. With all the pairings among characters, this is pure soap opera and not to my taste.

I've been a loyal fan of Ruth Rendell for many years. Her characters are often so strong that you can hear them breathe and at her best, her plotting and narrative development is masterful and compelling. Unfortunately, this book falls far short of past novels, even the so-so ones.

(SPOILER ALERT)
We know who committed the crime that drives the book in the first few pages. Our natural expectation is that a unforeseen narrative twist will emerge to drive the plot forward and capture our interest. This never happens. Instead, Rendell fleshes out the book's very thin plot by adding more and more characters to an already full and confusing slate of characters, who have little if anything to do with the essential narrative. None of the characters are particularly strong or well written. Rendell creates a few of them simply by turning "old folks" cliches on their heads: for example- one of the novel's man characters is a woman in her 70s whose most defining characteristic is her healthy, strong libido, which she is very comfortable expressing. Imagine that! This and Rendell's endless descriptions of her clothing comprise virtually everything we know about her.

Most of these poorly realized characters are constantly engaged in interminable and pointless conversations with one another or reflecting endlessly on their pasts and the mundane events that have led to them to their unsatisfying final years. These reflections and conversations are tedious and superficial and never yield anything of interest. Instead, it's the textual equivalent of watching paint dry, especially these pointless conversations are usually not tied to the narrative in any meaningful way.

Rendell is herself in the same age group as most of this book's characters and as a smart, perceptive woman and lifelong student and observer of human behaviour, you might imagine that she would at least have something interesting and insightful to say about aging through her characters. But all we learn is that old people are sometimes unhappy with their lives or can fall in love (or lust) or can continue to question their own moral and life choices after advancing beyond pension age. In short ,this book about seniors has nothing to say about the aging process that hasn't been said better countless times before.

I want to believe that this is a misstep by this great author and that her next book will come at least somewhere close to her past novels because for many decades Rendell has been a unique and quirky literary voice who is a pleasure to read. I'm giving this book two stars,probably one more than it deserves, because it was written by a five star author.

I had just finished a Wexford story (and enjoyed it), and wanted to try out another Rendell book. Unfortunately, this story is mind numbingly tedious. I only read a bit less than half of it (listening to it on an audiobook), but even with professional narration, I couldn't face anymore of it. I did go back and check other reviews, hoping to learn the book improved if I just hung in there. Unfortunately, what I read by other reviewers convinced me there was no point in me reading further. It didn't get better for others.
A group of friends, who played in tunnels together as children, are reunited by a discovery of two skeletal hands in a biscuit tin found while digging out a new basement. Found very near their tunnels. Sounds rather intriguing, right? Unfortunately what follows is unending rumminations from the now 70+ year olds.
The very 1st pages of the book detail the murder, and why he did it. There were no characters in subsequent chapters I liked, or cared what they were thinking about (on and on).
I shall keep an eye out for more Wexford stories, but I am staying clear of these unrelated ones.
I am leaving this review in hopes of saving others from a real time waster. For die hard Rendell fans, perhaps borrowing from the library would be the safest choice.

This was Rendell’s last novel -- her 65th in fifty years of published work -- and it’s a good one. It’s marketed as a “murder mystery,” but that’s not really true since we know from the outset who killed the adulterous young wife and her lover back in the summer of 1944. But the murder, and the rediscovery of the victims’ amputated hands as symbolic revenge, is really only the catalyst that brings back together in an ensemble drama the now-elderly Londoners who played together as kids in the last year of the war: Michael, Alan, Rosemary (whom Alan eventually married), Lewis (who became a doctor), and the Batchelor kids, most of whom shared in a construction firm. And Daphne, of course, the precocious sexual focus of the group, and “the girl next door.” They all played in the “tunnels” on the hill all that summer until a parent chased them away.

It was Michael Winwood’s mother who disappeared and he was told by his father that she had run off. And then he himself was shunted off to live with an aunt. Now Michael is a widower in his eighties who still hasn’t come to terms with his wife’s death, and his father, John, whom he hasn’t seen in sixty years, is nearing his hundredth birthday. After having done some laboring as a young man, John resolved never to work at a job again, and he found three wealthy wives to allow him to do that, as we learn as the story progresses, with the ex-kids remembering their youth and rediscovering their old playmates, and the young detective deciding none of this matters because everybody’s old anyway.

Much of the book, though, focuses on Alan, whose life, as he sees it, “hadn’t been unhappy, only dull.” And when he meets up Daphne again after many years, he wants only to resume their torrid affair from before he married Rosemary. His wife doesn’t deal well with being abandoned (she has trouble accepting change of any kind) but she’ll eventually learn to cope with it -- and Alan will come to regret that. The author uses the relationships of Alan, Rosemary, and Daphne to make a distinction between growing old and growing up, and watching the group interact can be uncomfortable for an older reader -- which tells me that Rendell pretty much nailed it. It’s not at all a conventional thriller and it’s a good one for the author to be going out with.

This has to be one of the most disappointing books I've ever read. I read the synopsis and thought "ooh, a murder mystery that ties back to WWII and some secret tunnels!" Yeah, that's not really what this is. There's no mystery--you know who the murderer is and who one of the victims is in the first chapter. And the other victim isn't even really discussed as a mystery. It's more of a footnote.

This book is more about relationships as people prepare for the end of their lives. It follows a bunch of people aged 70 and older who are all reunited after the hands are found near where they played as children. Then it follows a couple of the characters as they deal with marriage issues, grief and what family really means. It's dull, to put it mildly. And it's especially dull when the synopsis makes you think there's going to be a murder mystery.

If you want a mystery--or even a good story--pass on this.

I suppose it depends on what you are looking for in a book...but for me, this one just didn't resonate. Having never read a book by Ruth Rendell, I was cautious going into this one only because the ratings varied from "loved it," to "what?!" For me, this one falls somewhere in the middle.

Don't get me wrong, this woman can write. Her descriptions are great, her dialogue, and psychological underpinnings are spot-on, but it was the pace (slow), and lack of character attachment I felt that ruined it for me. However, it is my understanding that if you are fan of Rendell's earlier works, you'll find that you connect and "know" many of the characters from her other books. As a first-time reader of her work, I found the introduction of characters more of a "dump" and didn't develop much sympathy toward them.

I was particularly interested in the title, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR and was feeling a bit intrigued about the children/people we grow up with and underneath it all, knowing there is often something amiss...but what? Sure, there's an element of that in this book, but it's not the crux of the story--that is more the reunion of sorts of 70+ somethings who grew up together at the dawn of WWII, their trials and tribulations, love affairs, secrets, etc. It's a great read for someone of that generation, just not for someone, say born in the 1970s or after.

There was a time when you could not go wrong with a Ruth Rendell novel; apparently, that time has passed. This book is painfully slow and has too many characters who don't add a thing at all to the storyline. In addition, it is one of the most poorly edited books I have read in a long time, which is quite surprising -- don't they have any people at Scribner who can proofread? Here's an example of one of many terrible sentences: "Instead, she was tiny, slender, and though her hair was black, very long." Or this one: "Lucrezia was administering poison much as she planned to do to Daphne, but at the dinner where her son was a guest and her lover who was to drink the poison wine." Seriously?? The plot was difficult enough to follow without having to slog through a vast quagmire of grammatical errors and poorly constructed sentences. I expect that from my middle school students' writing, but not from a professional author of Rendell's stature and reputation. It made the whole book seem silly and amateurish. What a disappointment.

A word of warning: If you go into Ruth Rendell's THE GIRL NEXT DOOR with the expectation that it will be a typical mystery novel, or even a typical novel of psychological suspense, you're likely to be disappointed. What Rendell does in her latest book falls outside either of these categories, although it contains elements of both. Instead, it is more like a group portrait --- or even a longitudinal study, fictional of course --- of a group of disparate people and how a long-buried secret brings them back together, for better or for worse.

The book is not exactly a mystery, for readers know from the very first chapter not only what the crime is, but also its perpetrator. Enraged by his wife's infidelity, a young husband murders her and her lover, destroying their bodies, but not before severing their hands and placing them in a biscuit tin, burying the tin in a series of tunnels near their property in exurban London. The time is World War II, and the murderer takes advantage of the upheaval of wartime to cover up his crime, claiming, credibly enough, that his wife and her lover have both gone missing, presumably to start new lives elsewhere, as many people did during and after the war.

Fast forward to the present day, and a new construction project uncovers that buried biscuit tin --- and the skeletal remains inside it. The police open an investigation more out of a sense of obligation than of urgency, but they do bring together a group of people, now in their 70s, who were once children and played together in those underground tunnels. Many of them haven't seen each other in 50 years or more. Rosemary and her husband, Alan, were children together in the tunnels and later rekindled their friendship (which became a romance) as young adults. However, when the two of them are reunited with their old playmates, particularly the provocative Daphne, their lives change more than any of them would have predicted.

Reading THE GIRL NEXT DOOR brings to mind how remarkable it is to see older adults portrayed in fiction not only as fully developed, complex characters, but as characters with sex lives and sexual desires. This portrayal is both surprising and refreshing (albeit in the context of marital infidelity). Rendell illustrates that love triangles and romantic betrayal can spark passion, irrationality and revenge in young and old, men and women alike. But she also reminds readers of any age that older adults are fully capable of emotional growth and genuine change, even at a time when their life's pattern seems set in stone.

Neither a mystery nor a typical story of suspense, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR nevertheless holds more than a few surprises for readers, right up until the end. Complex, emotional and often unexpected, it shows that Rendell still has the ability to change readers' points of view and keep them on the edge of their seats.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl

A rather disappointing Ruth Rendell effort. What starts out with an an intriguing premise tends to evaporate into a routine, even soap opera affair. This is one of Ms. Rendell's non-Wexford psychological novels which in the past I have found to be really good but this one misses the mark. There are a lot of characters but sadly none of them are particularly interesting or believable. Even Rosemary, obviously the most sympathetic character, tends to be more than a trifle boring with a lifestyle that doesn't appear to have advanced since the 1950's and all those references to sayings that meant something in the past but don't mean the same today ... well, really!!! And at times I felt like I had to get the London tube time table out because of the continual references to train stations and where to get off and change for another line!
On the positive side Ruth Rendell hasn't written some sixty books and won stacks of awards for nothing. She knows how to spin a decent yarn and no doubt many readers will get more involved in this story than I was. She is such a skilful writer that we know, despite this so-so effort, we will all be keenly waiting for her next outing.

I put off reading this book because I've been disappointed in the last half-dozen Rendells, both the standalones and the Wexfords. Therefore, it was a happy surprise to me to find her back on form. It's definitely my favorite from the last ten years or so.

The book isn't precisely a mystery, or rather, the mystery revolves more around what the characters will do than around the solving of a crime. There's a crime, but it serves as more of a jumping-off point for a story about a group of childhood friends who are grappling with growing older. If that sounds dull, I certainly didn't find it so. Character development is the star in this book. All are well-delineated, and I found myself constantly changing my mind about them as the book went on. This is also one of the few novels I've read that focus on characters in their 70s. They are definitely not stereotyped; the viewpoints expressed can be startling. One incident seemed extreme while it was happening, but by the end of the book, I was able to accept the context into which the author placed it. The major suspension of disbelief, for me, came with the way the crime was committed. Once past that, I found the book had the ring of psychological truth.

As long as you don't go in expecting a whodunit, this book should be enjoyable for anyone who likes strong characters and simple good writing.

Interestingly, as Ruth Rendell has grown older (she is now 84), her novels tend to feature an older cast of characters. Her latest, The Girl Next Door, for example, focuses on a group of childhood friends, all of them now in their seventies, who are brought back together by the investigation of a crime that happened in their old neighborhood in 1944.

After, as children, they discovered a carefully constructed earthen tunnel in an open field near their homes, there was no keeping them out of it. Finally, they had a place to call their own where they could create a little world far away from the prying eyes of parents and neighborhood do-gooders. But now, some six decades later, a gruesome discovery is made near their secret tunnel. A little tin box containing the remains of two human hands (one male, one female) has been found – and police want to know what the old friends might remember about those long ago days.

It is not like any of the old group has gone out of their way to keep up with the others. Whole lives have been lived with varying degrees of success and failure; some are happily married now, with adult children; others have been married more than once and have no children; some stayed in the old neighborhood, and others have not been back for years. Life has moved on and, now if they think of their old friends at all, most still picture them as the children they were in 1944. But that is about to change.

The wild card in the deck has always been Daphne. Two or three years older than most of the other children in their group, she is the one all the boys were in love with and all the girls wanted to be. Even now, as the group prepares to meet together with a police detective, most of the men are eagerly anticipating a reunion with Daphne – and most of the women will find themselves resenting her when she arrives. Let the fireworks begin.

The Girl Next Door is a mystery about a crime that even the police don’t seem to care much about. After all, the victims, even if identified, have been dead since before the end of World War II, and their murderer, if still alive, is likely to be almost 100 years old. But don’t let that fool you because Rendell has a lot more than that up her sleeve. Not the least is her reminder that the emotions of childhood relationships, feuds, and passions are every bit as strong in the minds of the elderly as they were when fresh. And as it turns out, according to Rendell, they are also every bit as strong in the flesh. Several childhood friends, because of a pair of severed hands, will live out their remaining years much differently than they had anticipated just a few weeks earlier.

Pure Ruth Rendell, this one is a beauty.

From the start, you are in the mind of a sociopath, and the reader knows who has committed the murder so it is not a traditional 'who done it' and no police procedural. There is a gruesome object in a banal McGuffin.

The book revolves around a group of children who are now aged and dying off, playmates if not really friends, at a site of a basement dig near their houses for an abandoned grand house. Their world revolves around the fantasy of making the holes in the ground in to fantastic "forts" and magic.

The setting is flashbacks to the end of World War II, and all that implies of their observations of the adults around them.

The contemporary setting has quite a lot of discussion of oldsters having sex, so this is a novel for mature audiences.

The main story of the novel is rather the sudden shift in alliance and marriage of one of the main characters, and the changes that has on everyone in the winter of their lives.

If you are looking for a standard thriller or crime novel then this is not the book and definitely different from most everything else Ruth Rendell has written. But if you're looking for an insightful and readable novel "about how people change - and don't change - during their lifetime" then this book fits the bill. It definitely taught me a lot about the insights and private lives of oldsters.

Ruth Rendell has a long and distinguished career as a crime novelist, both of a series involving an ongoing inspector (Wexford) and as a crime writer of standalone books, without and ongoing investigator, And then there is her writing using another name, Barbara Vine. The Vine books (which generally prefer) are rather darker and rather more devoted to complex subterranean psychology. It could be said they are really psychological thrillers.

Curiously, Rendell's latest `Barbara Vine' did not quite `bite' with me the way she usually does.

This latest Rendell is also not quite expected Rendell. For those expecting a crime, and an investigation to unmask the perpetrator it will come as a bit of a surprise to find the crime, and the perpetrator, and indeed the motive, are all explained in the blurb.

In the 40s, a man murders his wife and her lover, does a bit of dismemberment and buries their hands in a biscuit tin. (he saw them holding hands, when he came home unexpectedly, which alerted him to what was going on). Local children, including his son, play in the tunnels in semi-rural Loughton (as it was then) The tunnels will serve as a hiding place for the hands

Jumping forward more than 60 years the community of children have gone their ways, though some have kept in contact. Their lives begin to connect again when building development work uncovers the hands and the tin, and a half-hearted cold cases enquiry begins. Half-hearted as it is pretty obvious that whoever did the deed, and on whom, is most likely to be dead. The children who played in the tunnels are either themselves dead or in their seventies and more.

What the `crime hook' does to is to reunite a group of very different elderly people, and `the hands' are what connects their lives together again, whether they directly affected some of the major players at the time (for example the murderer's son) or later, as the various at the time mysteries begin to be remembered and picked over.

What the book is really about is the passage of time, and, particularly, a look at the loves, lives and losses of a group of elderly people.

There are some things which are clearly `devices' and don't quite work - for example, the very burial of those hands, and the comparative ease with which the murderer got away with his murders, but I did get interested in the lives of the elderly group.

The exploration of the long uncoupling of marriages, and the enduring potency of first love, and, yes, the existence of sexuality and passionate feelings in a group of people whom most of us might think are `past it' proved more absorbing than I might have supposed.

I received this as a review copy from the publishers

"The Girl Next Door" is technically a mystery...two skeleton hands, one male, one female are found by construction workers in an old biscuit tin. The hands are easily over 50 years old. A detective half-halfheartedly begins an investigation, and the case piques the interest of a group of senior citizens--all 70+ who used to play in the tunnels in the neighborhood near where the hands were found. There is not a huge amount of "suspense" in solving the mystery because you find out in the first chapter who did it, but the book really came to life as it explored the relationships, friendships, and lives of the eight or so children--most of whom have long since lost touch with each other--but begin crossing paths again after the hands are found and they meet to discuss the find.
Ms. Rendell is a master at exploring her characters and making them well-rounded. When a book is told from several points of view I sometimes have difficulty staying interested in a few of the characters, but not this book. Each character drew me in and was a fascinating study on the choices we make through life, how they change us, how we adapt to changing times, and how all of that affects our futures. While not extremely suspenseful, it was definitely intriguing and kept me awake and turning pages for hours.

I would never have chosen to read The Girl Next Door, but I enjoyed listening to the audiobook. I could greatly appreciate the relationships and situations of the various older characters. Rendell introduces a group of school age children, and then quickly turns to sixty years later. Michael's mother disappeared right after WWII, and Michael went to live with his father's cousin. Sixty years later, the children are reunited when a pair of mismatched hands are discovered. Rendell reigns as a mystery writer supreme in England, but this story basks in relationships and the realities of getting older. The events bring laughter and tears and understanding. After completing the story, I went and telephoned my mother and step mother.

This is certainly not the same as Ruth Rendell's other novels, but that doesn't mean that it's any less enjoyable. Ms. Rendell is a master at her craft and has always been one of my favourite authors whether she's writing as herself or her Barbara Vine penname. This book breaks all the barriers and preconceived notions about aging and what motivates people in their very senior years. A group of old school friends are brought together six decades after they were young and were exploring the neighbourhood where they all lived. An old tin box is found in the tunnels that they used to play in under an old building, and when it is opened it is found to contain two skeletal hands-one the hand of a male and the other a female's hand. This discovery serves to bring these old friends together again when they are all in their seventies, and it serves to dredge up old emotions, and causes each of them to make some decisions that forever change their lives. Yes, there is a crime in this book, but the book is so much more than a crime novel. Ms. Rendell has created some unforgettable characters in this novel, and she succeeds in making us all aware that age makes no difference to the effects that decisions that we make in the heat of passion or in the full flush of anger are just as significant and momentous as any decisions that we make in our younger years.

This is a dazzling new novel from Ms. Rendell and not your conventional crime thriller. The author dives in with her usual ferocity and boldly yanks and kneads the classic crime format and the result is sinewy and startling.

You can see Rendell is enjoying herself here -- you're in a master's hands as she dexterously careens around, bolting from WW2 to the 21st Century, audaciously revealing the identity of the killer on page 5 and then abandoning him to focus on a group of elderly adults who were children at the time of homicide. In classic Rendell style these brilliantly executed characters begin to pulse and solidify until they're viciously real, as layered as Russian nesting dolls. It's impossible to believe they aren't out there somewhere -- prowling a London street with skin and pores and veins and thudding human hearts. And even though the chilling crime which involves the discovery of a pair of skeletal human hands in a tin box still simmers, you are suddenly transfixed by the lives of these grown children. They bloom like a frenzy of roses, cleverly warping the books trajectory so you have no idea where you're heading.

The Girl Next Door is a fantastic labyrinth of duplicity and festering revenge. Rendell wields her toxic wand, yanks you this way and that, scattering crumbs for you to follow, splashing deceit and malice like blood and battery acid. The plot is clever but it's the book's intended incongruity and extraordinary smorgasbord of characters that are the main attraction.

Ruth Rendell has a number of mysteries to her credit. She discloses in the first few pages of the book the murderer, who he murdered, the community the families and neighbors lived in, and the children who lived in that community. Set at the end of the Second World War, a group of children discover earthen tunnels, outside London. They played in these tunnels, which they named Qanats, and told stories, played dress-up, all the things children did to amuse themselves. Sixty years later new construction in the area reveals a tin box with a pair of skeletal hands, one male and one female. The school friends, now in their seventies and eighties, meet with Detective Quell, trying to piece the case together.

There are a large number of characters in this book and each one has a storyline, whether it is vital to the murder or not. Rendell may be incredibly clever because the book is filled with characters who show how disjointed the mind becomes with age. Several of the friends have not seen or heard from each other in years, and they spend a lot of time trying to sort out who married whom, whose parents lived where, who moved away and when. Marriages falter, new romances spring forth, death claims some. All the while the detective is trying to sort all this information and find the true answers.

John Winwood is self-centered, mean-spirited, and vicious to almost everyone he meets. He treats his son wretchedly, exploits gullible females who fall in love with him, and exacts a steep price from anyone who dares cross him. Oddly enough, while Winwood plays a crucial role in Rendell's "The Girl Next Door," he is not its central character. Instead, the author focuses on a group of British schoolchildren who, in 1944, enjoying playing in tunnels located in their village outside London. Rendell moves her narrative forward abruptly, revisiting these same individuals more than sixty years later. Some have been married more than once; a few are widowed. When they get together, these old friends discuss a macabre discovery. In the very spot where they once met as youngsters, construction workers find an old biscuit tin containing two severed hands.

"The Girl Next Door" is neither a classic whodunit nor a police procedural, although it has a few puzzling elements that keep us guessing. Rendell examines the ways in which tragedy brings people together and drives them apart. She also offers examples of life's ironies and injustices. Why must goodhearted people endure so many hardships, while the soulless and immoral among us often thrive? Whether one is a saint or sinner, his or her well-ordered existence may appear to be humming along smoothly--until, unexpectedly, something terrible happens. This is an engrossing and poignant novel that elicits mixed emotions. We feel pity, disgust, and horror at the suffering of innocents, but are buoyed by the courage of men and women who face formidable challenges with grace and dignity. Rendell's offbeat story may not please everyone, but she will find an appreciative audience among those who enjoy darkly humorous and quirky psychological thrillers.

The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell.

The story begins towards the end of WWII not far from the London area. Children are finding adventure playing in the tunnels until they are told by one of their father's to stay away. Construction workers, decades later, find a box in that same are. The box contains the remains of male & female hands.

The characters and their relationships with each other are followed from early childhood until their later years. They become reacquainted with each other and reminisce about lives in years past.

I found this book fascinating and quite different than Ruth Rendell's other Inspector Wexford books. In this story the characters are described in detail in their elderly years. Their fondness for each other is also apparent.

Rather than building up to a crime and reveal, "The Girl Next Door" uses a murder to frame an investigation of memory and relationships and how time does (and doesn't) change those things.

It is a good novel with a methodical look at life through the eyes of several people who knew each other as children but now are brought together again about 70 years later through the discovery of a pair of hands. Rendell writes well from the different points of view. They are clearly different people but shaped by being part of the same generation. Each person also adds to the story and helps move the plot along nicely. The book can be slow at times and the characters are not always the most interesting, but I suppose that matches real life.

Not a compliant, but every time it was Alan's point of view, all I could think was "f*** off Alan." He is truly insufferable right until the end.

3.5 stars. The Girl Next Door is billed as a murder-mystery novel that ends up turning into a lovely study in aging, friendships, and loyalty. Make no bones (pun intended) about it, this book doesn't 100% deliver on the mystery-thriller promise the original synopsis (the version used for this US release has been updated) seems to indicate, but, after I got over my confusion, I found the book to be enjoyable and Rendell to be an excellent story teller.

Originally reviewed for Reading Lark, ARC kindly provided by publisher.

Nearly 60 years ago, a group of children discovered an abandoned tunnel system and made a vow to keep "the quants," as they called them, them their secret play area. The tunnels become their meeting spot, a haven where no adults entered and they play games, tell stories, and sometimes cook meals in a makeshift oven. They have everything they need, until a parent catches them and forbids the children to ever enter the tunnels again. Flash forward sixty years to a new housing development and the tunnels, along with a box containing the bones of two hands, being discovered. Because of the hands discovery, one male and one female, a police investigation is initiated which reunites the group of old friends.

The relationships between the group of now-adult children is truly the crux of this novel, not the mystery or the investigation. Old flames are rekindled, new relationships are formed, and the characters reminisce, with sometimes questionable detail, the summer of the tunnels. Most characters are well drawn, detailed, and believable (not always sympathetic, but they don't need to be), but I had a difficult time keeping them all straight until I was over halfway through the novel. And this is the type of interwoven story that needs its reader to keep everyone straight. The investigation occasionally crops up, but very early into the book the reader knows who the murder is so it doesn't follow the traditional trajectory of keeping the reader in the dark, which I found refreshing.

The Girl Next Door is a good psychological study in human relationships, but I had a difficult time getting past my expectations of a mystery-thriller and keeping straight the cast of characters. Overall a good read, and I'm happy to say the synopsis has been revised for this US release (see below) to make it seem less thriller-esque. :)

I never thought I would give one star to a Ruth Rendell psychological novel, but this book was a clear disappointment. It was not so much that it is depressing, being about old age. It is uplifting in that it shows how elderly people survive and renew their lives even into their 80's. What I objected to were the contrived plot twists, the transformation of a normal housewife into a would-be murderess when her husband leaves her, and what I perceived was an antagonism toward men. The book is unusually sexually explicit, and more lurid than usual. Rendell seems to be telling the reader, "Here. Here's what it's like to be in your 80's. It's no picnic." There is a residue of bitterness, an aftertaste that made it impossible for me to enjoy the book.

This book begins, Columbo style, with a double murder. The mystery starts 60 years later, when evidence finally comes to light. The reader follows along as the characters uncover the terrible crime (and the terrible child neglect that preceded it) and learn more about themselves and each other.

What I liked best about this book is that the main characters are older individuals; it is so rare in popular media, which usually follows a cult of youth. Here the older characters are complex, imperfect, intelligent, loving, and sexual. Recommended for all public libraries.

The Girl Next Door reminded me of some of the earlier Ruth Rendell books that were more psychological thriller than murder mystery, such as One Across Two Down. Unlike the earlier novels, The Girl Next Door has quite a large cast of characters, and I had some trouble remembering who a few of the less important ones were. The major characters were easy enough to keep track of and it was impossible to look away as they made disastrous decisions and rationalized their bad behavior.

The characters in this story had been childhood friends during World War II, so they are in their seventies and eighties as the story begins. A few characters are even older than that. But Rendell has a great time showing us that age doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with wisdom. Having spent some time visiting relatives in nursing homes, I found The Girl Next Door completely believable in its portrayal of old people as very much like young people in their behavior. They form cliques and say things they wish they could take back, they gossip about each other and have affairs and treat each other badly.

As a murder mystery, The Girl Next Door is not especially remarkable, but as a fascinating collection of character studies, it's a winner.

Very well written story about an unsolved murder that occurred during World War II and how a modern discovery of evidence affected a group of people who grew up together where the murder had occurred. Interwoven into the story of the murder are stories of these neighborhood friends who are now growing older and experiencing life and love.

Friends during childhood, a group of men and women in their 70s is brought back together by a grisly discovery in an old tunnel where they'd played as children. It's not the mystery that grabs your attention, but the complications that result when old friends reconnect and rediscover one another. Rendell takes her seniors seriously, weaving for them a rich plot around love, sex, death, friendship and betrayal. The dynamic tension between contemporary Britain and the war years is particularly effective.

It isn't often we find a book starring the elderly. This novel is expertly crafted and as a mystery is eminently fair; Agatha Christie would be delighted. All in all, this was a book I couldn't put down and for once, to find a story about people in their 70s+ having feelings, hopes, fears, and being interesting as they went about their lives was a real gift. (If you want to object to my not mentioning other authors who address people with more memories than aspirations, feel free to tell me about them.)

This novel is more of a character study and a darn good one. Ruth Rendell never disappoints. Older readers will especially enjoy it because they will have already had a lifetime of what is so brilliantly described in her characters...mistakes made, some that can never be corrected, loss, and a chance to try again, to make it work.

Read this book, or tried to read it, with hope that it would get somewhere. And with effort to try to keep all the characters in order. There were just too many of them, some with big roles to play in the "plot", and some with no role to play. I think there were at least 20 of them! The big event, the murder, happens in the first chapter or so, and then comes the remembering and the sorting out. Good, I think, on depicting older people (no, scratch that, OLD people) accurately and with understanding, but as some other reviewers have said, ends with a "so what" conclusion.

Definitely not a usual Ruth Rendell style mystery or a mystery at all. However, this is a wonderful and warm book with great many wonderfully shaped, multi-layer characters and excellent narration. Not to be recommended for mystery lovers, but all those who enjoy reading British style novels will find many angles in this book to love.

Ruth Rendell once again demonstrates her brilliance in depicting character, plot, and yes, even humor, though dark. Rendell has produced another spellbinding story, made even more so by the fact that she reveals the identity of the murderer right at the beginning of the book. You will be drawn into the lives of these characters, disdaining some and rooting for others. Just one criticism--really dislike the ending!!!!!!!!! (By that I mean the final page.)

Whoa, there is passion after seventy?! I always appreciate an intelligent and literary mystery, full of wry humor and insight. There is just one point I would make, and that is why lay out everything at the beginning? SPOILER FOLLOWS: The first chapter could have been an epilogue or a fuller confession at the end, which would have made the novel more of a mystery. The one plot twist pertaining to the murder of the couple was not a huge surprise and maybe not a big enough one to have sustained a "mystery" in less capable hands (no pun intended) than Ruth Rendell's. But far be it for me to offer any sort of criticism; this was a pleasurable page-turner even if it could have been more suspenseful. The Brits do it best. Bravo for The Girl Next Door!

The Girl Next Door reminded me of some of the earlier Ruth Rendell books that were more psychological thriller than murder mystery, such as One Across Two Down. Unlike the earlier novels, The Girl Next Door has quite a large cast of characters, and I had some trouble remembering who a few of the less important ones were. The major characters were easy enough to keep track of and it was impossible to look away as they made disastrous decisions and rationalized their bad behavior.

The characters in this story had been childhood friends during World War II, so they are in their seventies and eighties as the story begins. A few characters are even older than that. But Rendell has a great time showing us that age doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with wisdom. Having spent some time visiting relatives in nursing homes, I found The Girl Next Door completely believable in its portrayal of old people as very much like young people in their behavior. They form cliques and say things they wish they could take back, they gossip about each other and have affairs and treat each other badly.

As a murder mystery, The Girl Next Door is not especially remarkable, but as a fascinating collection of character studies, it's a winner.

Very well written story about an unsolved murder that occurred during World War II and how a modern discovery of evidence affected a group of people who grew up together where the murder had occurred. Interwoven into the story of the murder are stories of these neighborhood friends who are now growing older and experiencing life and love.

Friends during childhood, a group of men and women in their 70s is brought back together by a grisly discovery in an old tunnel where they'd played as children. It's not the mystery that grabs your attention, but the complications that result when old friends reconnect and rediscover one another. Rendell takes her seniors seriously, weaving for them a rich plot around love, sex, death, friendship and betrayal. The dynamic tension between contemporary Britain and the war years is particularly effective.

It isn't often we find a book starring the elderly. This novel is expertly crafted and as a mystery is eminently fair; Agatha Christie would be delighted. All in all, this was a book I couldn't put down and for once, to find a story about people in their 70s+ having feelings, hopes, fears, and being interesting as they went about their lives was a real gift. (If you want to object to my not mentioning other authors who address people with more memories than aspirations, feel free to tell me about them.)

This novel is more of a character study and a darn good one. Ruth Rendell never disappoints. Older readers will especially enjoy it because they will have already had a lifetime of what is so brilliantly described in her characters...mistakes made, some that can never be corrected, loss, and a chance to try again, to make it work.

Read this book, or tried to read it, with hope that it would get somewhere. And with effort to try to keep all the characters in order. There were just too many of them, some with big roles to play in the "plot", and some with no role to play. I think there were at least 20 of them! The big event, the murder, happens in the first chapter or so, and then comes the remembering and the sorting out. Good, I think, on depicting older people (no, scratch that, OLD people) accurately and with understanding, but as some other reviewers have said, ends with a "so what" conclusion.

Definitely not a usual Ruth Rendell style mystery or a mystery at all. However, this is a wonderful and warm book with great many wonderfully shaped, multi-layer characters and excellent narration. Not to be recommended for mystery lovers, but all those who enjoy reading British style novels will find many angles in this book to love.

Ruth Rendell once again demonstrates her brilliance in depicting character, plot, and yes, even humor, though dark. Rendell has produced another spellbinding story, made even more so by the fact that she reveals the identity of the murderer right at the beginning of the book. You will be drawn into the lives of these characters, disdaining some and rooting for others. Just one criticism--really dislike the ending!!!!!!!!! (By that I mean the final page.)

Whoa, there is passion after seventy?! I always appreciate an intelligent and literary mystery, full of wry humor and insight. There is just one point I would make, and that is why lay out everything at the beginning? SPOILER FOLLOWS: The first chapter could have been an epilogue or a fuller confession at the end, which would have made the novel more of a mystery. The one plot twist pertaining to the murder of the couple was not a huge surprise and maybe not a big enough one to have sustained a "mystery" in less capable hands (no pun intended) than Ruth Rendell's. But far be it for me to offer any sort of criticism; this was a pleasurable page-turner even if it could have been more suspenseful. The Brits do it best. Bravo for The Girl Next Door!

Not the usual Ruth Rendell, this story is more a biography of a bunch of childhood friends and how they passed their older years! Some of the characters are very familiar- and all are well drawn! A little long and a very abrupt end are the negatives. Believe MY contemporaries ( Medicare beneficiaries) would enjoy it!

This book was very depressing and the mystery element was totally lacking. The plot was thin and boring. The author introduced too many insignificant characters to try to flesh out the story. Disappointing!!

The elderly characters in this novel annoyed the hell out of me. Now that I’ve dissed the wrinklies and gotten that out of my system, I can offer a few comments about Ruth Rendell’s novel titled, The Girl Next Door. We learn of a murder at the beginning of the book, so there is no mystery as to who did it. The plot involves the cast of characters decades later and their lives and connections to that past event and to each other. Readers who like crime fiction that explores psychological insight are those most likely to enjoy reading this novel. I struggled through to the end, finding the development of each character a bit tedious, and I caught myself not caring a wit about any of them.

Rating: Three-star (It’s ok)

Even with disturbing undertones this story was heart warming in ways. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the long lives the group of elderly friends had lived; Lost loves, newly found love and facing the inevitable. I was much more intrigued by some stories than other but all in all it came together well!

Loved it. Although not your typical "who done it" mystery it had an enjoyable cast of characters. I read a lot and this book was refreshingly different. I've only read one other Ruth Rendell novel, but will definitely be reading more. I

It caught my interest immediately but the middle it lost momentum. Then it picked back up three quarters of the way through. What I liked at the end is everyone got what they deserved. The karma got them!

Ruth Rendell in full stride continues to explore the peculiarities of her peers - in this case exploring the world of "seasoned" citizens - in her own singular and peculiar way. Ruth Rendell continues to entertain and amaze. Long live ruth Rendell!!

THIS IS NOT THE BEST BOOK TO READ TO FIND OUT HOW WELL RUTH RENDELL WRITES MYSTERIES. I AM AFRAID. I WILL NEVER FIND OUT AS I SHALL NOT READ ANYTHING ELSE BY HER AS IT WAS A TRAGIC WASTE OF FUNDS. AND
A WASTE OF TIME AND ENERGY. THE TIME LINE WAS DIFFICULT TO FOLLOW AS WELL AS THE PLOT BUT WORSE WAS TRYING TO FOLLOW THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR LIVES AS EVERYBODY SEEMED TO BE CONNECTED SOMEHOW BUT I DID NOT EVER CONNECT WITH THEM NOR THE AUTHOR. THE STAR RATING SHOULD BE ONE HALF INSTEAD OF THE FIVE SHOWN.

I always preorder Ruth Rendell books way in advance as I'm such a big fan. I was really excited to start The Girl Next Door (I preordered in April) and have to say that I was very disappointed. There weren't any real twists or turns to the story, and while the characters are well developed and the writing is good, like all Ruth Rendell books, this one just didn't hold my interest. I can't in all honesty recommend it to Rendell fans.

This is the first book that I've read by Ruth Rendell and, if there hadn't been so many people who loved her, saying this wasn't up to her usual standard, it would be my last. There were too many characters, none of which were well developed, and the paltry plot felt very contrived. I finished it, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It was mostly boring.

Not one likeable character in the entire book except the elderly charwoman. All were childish and immature. Only Michael had a legitimate reason for behaving the way he did. I felt this book was a waste of time.