The Tree of Hands
A stand-alone novel published by Hutchinson in 1984
I discovered Ruth Rendell’s work thanks to Claude Chabrol’s film La Cérémonie. Chabrol’s film disturbed me so much that I wanted to know more about the writer whom I didn’t know. So I read five, six, seven of her books non-stop, and came across The Tree of Hands, which I thought was wonderful and would make a very good film. So I made it. I have never met Ruth Rendell but I know that she watched the film last week, in a special screening. I haven’t heard her verdict yet but was told over the phone that she enjoyed it a lot.
Once when Benet was about fourteen, she and her mother had been alone in a train carriage, and Mopsa had tried to stab her with a carving knife.
It was some time since Benet had seen her psychologically disturbed mother. So when Mopsa arrived at the airport looking drab and colourless in a drab grey suit, Benet tried not to hate her.
But then the tragic death of a child begins a chain of deception, kidnap and murder that pushes three women to their psychological limit.
Notes
Winner of the CWA Silver Dagger.
The title refers to an artwork displayed on the wall in a hospital ward.
Shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.
Adapted for film in 1989.
Betty Fisher et autres histoires: A film directed and adapted from The Tree of Hands by Claude Miller in 2001.
Contemporary Reads 1
Elizabeth Ironside - A Very Private Enterprise
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J.G. Ballard - Empire of the Sun
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory
Leonardo Sciascia - The Day Of The Owl
Footnotes
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