AKICILJ, the mystery edition

[mrissa]

My library has eighty-four listings for Ruth Rendell books (and audio recordings). Even ruling out that there are some duplicated in different formats, that's a lot to choose from. What I've read so far: Means of Evil and Other Stories and Talking to Strange Men. I was particularly impressed with the latter. Any Rendell fans have particular opinions about where I should go next?

Comments

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

For me, there are three directions to go in with Rendell, and I like them all. First, Inspector Wexford--I think those may start with From Doon with Death, but I especially remember Speaker of Mandarin. Then there are the other Rendell books, which are all excellent, mostly about creepy twisted killers, often from the killer's POV. Finally, the longer and more complex psychological novels written as Barbara Vine--again, all fine.

She's one very consistently good writer. I'd say read any of them.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[pameladean]

She is really brilliant. I am particularly fond of the Inspector Wexford novels. The early ones (they go back to the early seventies, at least, and maybe to the sixties) are short, as mysteries of that time were, and a very interesting mirror of the times. She and Wexford both change a lot, and the books improve enormously, but I like reading the whole series because his wife and daughters and the people whom he works with have ongoing stories of their own, and you miss bits if you start later or only read the best books. The above commenter is right that From Doon with Death is the first, and it has some problematic societal attitudes in it (later addressed differently, by degrees, so that one tends to be annoyed but less so over time), but the characters' reactions aren't actually evil. That sounds very obscure, but I don't want to spoil the book.

I like the Barbara Vine books a lot, but they are extremely creepy. Well, by my standards. The Keys to the Street and The Brimstone Wedding are excellent, I think.

P.

P.S.

[pameladean]

I don't recommend Thirteen Steps Down at all.

P.

Re: P.S.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Poorly done, or too creepy, or what?

Re: P.S.

[pameladean]

Poorly done creepy. It seems to recycle a lot of her tropes, which might not be a problem if one hadn't read all her other stuff, but it's missing, I dunno, the verve, the life, the spark of redemption, that most of her work has.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ongoing plot arc is a good reason to start at the beginning for me. Thanks.

[pameladean]

I kind of thought so.

And nobody in the Wexford books is as exasperating as Archie Goodwin.

Mind, few people are as funny, either.

P.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

If you like Talking to Strange Men, which is one of the best, you will probably also like Going Wrong, Live Flesh and The Tree of Hands. I tend to think of those ones as going together somehow.

Of other things not already mentioned, the Vine novel Grasshopper is particularly good, though not if reading about people urban climbing might upset your vertigo.

Essentially, Rendell started off writing reasonable mysteries, and I think from thinking a lot about why people would do these things, got really good at writing about people. Her early books are fine, but her later ones are a whole other thing.

The Wexford ones tend to be gentler and more ongoing. I like them too.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's very helpful.