A Judgement in Stone – BooksPlease

Alphabet in Crime Fiction: J and K

Published on December 19, 2009October 30, 2017 by Margaret3 Comments

Whilst I’ve been busy moving house Kerrie’s A-Z Crime Fiction meme has featured the letters J and K. Now that I have the computer up and working (well D actually did that for me) I’m having a little break from unpacking boxes to add to the series. I’ve written about the following books earlier in this blog and have adapted my reviews for this post.

the letter J J is for A Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell.

This portrays Eunice, an illiterate woman and a psychopath who does anything to stop anyone from finding out that she can’t read or write. Her ingenuity and resourcefulness is amazing. She blackmails people and killed her father. I found the whole premise of such a damaged person apparently functioning normally in society scary.

She is employed by the Coverdales as their housekeeper and in the interests of having their house kept clean and tidy they tried to make her comfortable. But part of the problem was that they looked on her as little more than a machine, not as a person. They meant well, wanting to make other people happy, but they were interferers and things went from bad to worse. Then Eunice met Joan, who was completely unstable, in fact she was insane. Joan is a religious fanatic, a sinner who delights in telling people of her past sins and wanting them to seek God’s forgiveness. Their friendship ends in tragedy.

I felt helpless whilst reading this, desperately wanting the Coverdales to realise Eunice’s problems, but they were blind to the fact that Eunice was illiterate and although they tried to prevent her meeting Joan they were unaware of the danger they were in. This inflamed Eunice and pushed her into taking the actions she did.

Although Eunice’s crime is known right from the start, that does not detract from the suspense. It actually makes it worse – you know that the murder is going to happen and as the reasons why it happens become clear, the tension builds relentlessly.

letter K is for King of the Streets by John Baker.

I read this over two years ago. It depicts violent murder in graphic detail, which I found hard to stomach and the subject matter of the abuse and murder of children is neither easy nor pleasant to contemplate, but it’s a quick read. This was the third book I’d read by Baker, all set in York and featuring the private detective, Sam Turner and his assistant Geordie (naive, but street-wise). Sam is investigating the murder of a blackmailer and the death of a teenage runaway, hampered by a gangster and his “minders”.

It’s well written, giving insight into the minds of both the detective and the criminal characters. I particularly liked the nickname ‘Gog’ for one of the ‘minders’, who trashes Sam’s office. Gog is, as the name suggests, a huge giant of a man, with little reasoning power, but plenty of brawn, looked after (not very successfully) by his brother, Ben. Baker also refers to Gulliver’s Travels in describing Gog as ‘Brobdingnagian’. At times I even felt sorry for Gog.

I enjoyed this book immensely, despite the violence it portrays.

Teaser Tuesday and Where Are You?

Published on June 2, 2009 by Margaret14 Comments

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Grab your current read.
Let the book fall open to a random page.
Share with us two (2) ‘teaser’ sentences from that page.
You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your ‘teaser’ from €¦ that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
Please avoid spoilers!

My teasers today are from page 29 of Ruth Rendell’s A Judgement in Stone:

She was the strangest person they were ever likely to meet. And had they known what her past contained, they would have fled from her or barred their doors against her as against the plague – not to mention her future, now inextricably bound up with theirs.

I’m in Suffolk, at Lowfield Hall, a large 1930-ish house on the outskirts of Stanwich, with the Coverdale family and their new housekeeper Eunice Parchman.

This is a chilling tale full of psychological insights into the mind and motives of a killer.

For more Where Are You? answers, visit Raidergirl3 at An Adventure in Reading.

Library Loot

Published on May 18, 2009 by Margaret6 Comments

Hurray! Since writing my post on Gluttony last ThursdayI’ve managed not to buy any books!

But I had to go to the library to pick up two books I’d reserved, so I was unable to resist the temptation of browsing, which inevitably lead to finding more books that looked good – at least they’re not permanent additions to the “library at home”. I took home a mixed bag of books – two psychological thrillers, one chick-lit, one book of short stories, an American classic, and a book shortlisted for this year’s Orange Prize for Fiction, awarded to awarded to the woman who, in the opinion of the judges, has written the best, eligible full-length novel in English.

The first two listed below are the ones I reserved:

The Reunion by Simone van der Vlugt, which according to the back cover is “a tour-de-force from Holland’s top-selling crime writer.” I first read about it on another blog (can’t remember which one – sorry). Also from the back cover: “Sabine was 15 when Isabel disappeared. She remembers nothing from that hot May day. Nine years later, unwanted memories are returning to her. What if she saw something the day of Isabel’s disappearance? What if she could put a name to the shadowy figure in her dreams? What if her knowledge was dangerous?”
The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey – shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction this year. This may be painful reading as it’s about Jake who has Alzheimer’s. He is in his early 60s, has lost his wife, his son is in prison, and he is about to lose his past. I am both fascinated and appalled by Alzheimer’s.
The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets by Sophie Hannah. I keep reading Sophie’s name all over the place, so when I saw this book on the shelves I thought it was time to read something by her. This is a book of short stories. I read the first one “The Octopus Nest” yesterday and would have read more of them if I hadn’t been going out in the evening. I think I’m going to really enjoy this book, based on this first story about a stranger who keeps appearing in the background of a family’s holiday photographs.
Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison. An unknown-to-me author, but I love shoes and fancied something light and funny. This looks like chic-lit and I can’t imagine ever meeting up with friends to swap shoes, which is what the women in this book do, but maybe it’ll be entertaining.
A Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell. I still haven’t read her book “The Birthday Present”, so this should have stayed on the shelf but the first sentence hooked me: “Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.” So we know right away who did the murder, but not why.
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather. I have never read anything by Willa Cather. I liked the title, the book cover and the intriguing words on the front cover: “The Madame Bovary of the American frontier.” I opened this this morning just to look at it and read it straight through! It deserves a post of its own.