The Girl Next Door
A stand-alone novel published by Hutchinson in 2014
Instead of exploring psychopathy as one might have expected, Rendell gives an acutely observed portrayal of old age through her characters’ regrets, losses and bewilderment. Her realism renders the novel bleak at times but moving too. Difficult themes such as death, usually dressed up in mystery in a crime novel, are real, hard-hitting and constant.
In all her novels, Ruth Rendell digs deep beneath the surface to investigate the secrets of the human psyche.
The interconnecting tunnels of Loughton in The Girl Next Door lead to no single destination. But the relationships formed there, the incidents that occurred, exert a profound influence — not only on the survivors— but in unearthing the true nature of the mysterious past.
Before the advent of the Second World War, beneath the green meadows of Loughton, Essex, lies a dark network of tunnels. A group of children discover them. They play there. It becomes their secret place.
Seventy years on, the world has changed. Developers have altered the rural landscape. Friends from a half-remembered world have married, died, grown sick, moved on or disappeared.
Work on a new house called Warlock uncovers a grisly secret buried a lifetime ago, and a weary detective, more preoccupied with current crimes, must investigate a possible case of murder.
Notes
Ruth Rendell discusses and reads from her novel in 2014.
P.D. James 1920 - 2014.
I’ve known Phyllis for about 40 years. We met at a book festival, probably one of the first I ever attended. It would have been a very commonplace thing for her to go to a festival, but nobody knew me then, and she was so nice to me.
2Ruth Rendell, a Patron of Freedom from Torture and former Suffolk resident, talks to BBC Radio Suffolk.
Three of the longest-serving and oldest female members of The Lords reflect on a life spent in The Second Chamber. Baroness Sharples (Cons), Baroness Rendell of Babergh (Lab) and Baroness Warnock (Cross Bencher) share their views.
Ruth Rendell talks to Jenni Murray about her new novel and 50 years of Inspector Wexford.
Simon Rendell unveils a blue plaque in memory of his mother in Loughton.
Contemporary Reads 3
Karin Fossum - Hellfire
Helen MacDonald - H is for Hawk
Sarah Waters - The Paying Guests
Emma Healey - Elizabeth is Missing
C.J. Sansom - Lamentation
Liane Moriarty - Big Little Lies
Footnotes
Ruth Rendell’s acute investigation of old age, The Observer, 2014 ↩︎
Ruth Rendell looks back on her 40-year friendship with her fellow crime novelist PD James. The Guardian 2014. ↩︎
Book links may earn this site a small commission. ↩︎