The Girl Next Door: A Novel - Tapa blanda

"[Rendell] creates another riveting story with her sharp characterizations and keen sense of irony that will keep readers engaged from start to finish. Fans of psychological suspense, along with Rendell's loyal following, will love this complex story."--Library Journal (starred review)

"Using her customary spare yet decorous style and measured pace, Rendell, now in her 80s, beautifully and carefully individualizes each member of her ensemble cast, at the same time creating not a grim reminder of mortality but a picture of moribund lives renewed. A special book by a special writer."--Booklist (starred review)

"Ruth Rendell's fiction clusters at such a high level that the best judgment I can render about The Girl Next Door is this: It's a good Rendell, and that makes it very good indeed."--Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post

"[Rendell] has always been at her heart-stopping best when she pushes the reader out of the comfort zone with her stand-alone psychological thrillers...The Girl Next Door is vintage Rendell and a perfect celebration of her half-century...This novel reminded me of the singularity of Ruth Rendell's talent, her effortless mastery of language and her uncanny genius for mapping a criminal mind."--Kate Saunders, The Times (U.K.)

"A must read... not your typical crime story, but it is a typical Rendell book -- cunningly observed, elegantly written."--Ed Siegel, WBUR

"Only recently has it been common for novelists to work into their late 70s and beyond -- not merely producing new work but writing at a very high level. A case in point is Ruth Rendell, whose new novel, The Girl Next Door, just appeared. Rendell is 84...Like her contemporary P.D. James, she is one of the finest writers of her time... her wit, always mordant, has never been sharper than when she skewers patronizing assumptions about the 'elderly.'"

--John Wilson, Chicago Tribune

"[Rendell] is one of the most literate living writers of fiction...Her witty style and her endless trove of subtle references to fellow writers (living and dead) are matched by a timeliness that always takes on contemporary social issues along with the invented mystery that propels her plot into action. Part of the miracle is that with more than 60 books to her credit over a half-century career, Ms. Rendell never descends into mere formula. The Girl Next Door is no exception."--Robert Croan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"This book is extraordinarily courageous, a demonstration that fiction can take us where reportage dares not go."--The Independent (U.K.)

"Mystery novel about friendship, love, and aging. Synopsis: In the wanting months of the second World War, a group of children discover an earthen tunnel in their neighborhood. Throughout the summer of 1944--until one father forbids it--the subterranean space becomes their "secret garden," where the friends play games and tell stories. Six decades later, beneath a house on the same land, construction workers uncover a tin box containing two skeletal hands, one male and one female. As the discovery makes national news, the friends come together once again, to recall their days in the tunnel for the detective investigating the case. Is the truth buried among these aging friends and memories? This impromptu reunion causes long-simmering feelings to bubble to the surface. Mild-mannered Alan, stuck in a passionless marriage, begins flirting with Daphne, a glamorous widow who was once his teenage sweetheart. Michael, lonely after the death of his wife, considers contacting his estranged father, who sent Michael to live with an aunt after his mother vanished in 1944. Lewis begins remembering details about his Uncle James, an army private who once accompanied the Children into the tunnels, and who later disappeared. In THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, Rendell brilliantly shatters our assumptions about age, showing that the choices people make--and the emotions behind them--remain as potent in late life as they were in youth"--