I am somewhat of a mystery fiend. I have slowed down a bit from my youth, in which I would land on a series, and then spend the next few weeks devouring everything the author had ever written, but I still love a good mystery, and there is no question that Rendell is one of the best mystery writers out there today. I first came to her work through her nom-de-plume, Barbara Vine. Under that name she writes books that are more suspense novels than traditional mysteries. They usually involve the gradual unraveling of a story from a character's past, often with a historical element. I particularly enjoyed (and would strongly recommend) Anna's Book*, A Dark-Adapted Eye, and The Chimney's Sweeper’s Boy. All three are great books - her other stuff is good too, but I have read and re-read each of these, and thoroughly enjoyed them. Most of her writing is done under the name Ruth Rendell, and these are more traditional mysteries. She has written a series about the police work of Inspector Wexford, and a number of stand alone crime novels. 13 Steps Down is one of the latter.

The book interweaves a number of stories and characters - the main two being Gwendolyn Chawcer, an elderly lady who lives in a crumbling mansion in Notting Hill and her tenant, Mix Cellini. Gwendolyn has lived her whole life in the house, with few life experiences, beyond a brief flirtation with a doctor when she was a young woman (which came to naught). She is fabulously crotchety Miss Havisham type character, who does nothing but lounge around her house, re-reading Victorian novels. Cellini is a type that Rendell has written about before in a number of her novels - a single minded criminal, with a fixation on a few things. To my mind, it’s a sociopathic type, and every time I read one of her books with this creepy kind of character, I am let down. It's not that Rendell doesn't creepily convince me that that is the way that creepy psychopaths think, its just that I find it dull to read about a character with no inner life, beyond their narrow area of fixation. In Mix's case, it's a famous serial killer from the 1950's, and a supermodel named Nerissa. Over the course of the novel, we chart Mix's life spiraling out of control and how it affects others, leading, ultimately, to murder. It is a clever novel, for sure, as all the threads come together to the inevitable end. There is no question Rendell can write, and I read that thing from cover to cover (though granted, I was on an airplane, so I was a captive audience). It's not my favorite of hers, since as I said, I am not so interested in her sociopaths**, and its one of those mysteries where you spend more time worrying about what will happen (and hoping that certain characters make it out ok) than who dunnit. I prefer whodunits, but, that being said, I will certainly be reading more Rendell. She is a great writer who crafts clever but still emotionally resonant mysteries - especially the ones that don't concern psychopaths. So, I guess what I am saying is run out and read some Rendell - but read different Rendell - or even better, read Vine!

* FYI, Amazon refers to it as Asta's Book, so if you are looking to read it - which you totally should - be aware.

** Seriously, it is like the same character, over and over again. I like Rendell a lot, but I am bored of this character. I am even too bored to write out all the books that these boring psychopaths can be found in!