A Demon In My View: a chilling portrayal of psychological violence from the award-winning Queen of Crime, Ruth Rendell

Description

Her white face, beautiful, unmarked by any flaw of skin or feature, stared blankly back at him. He fancied that she had cringed, her slim body pressing further into the wall behind her He didn't speak. He had never known how to talk to women. There was only one thing he had ever been able to do to women and, advancing now, smiling, he did it. Then, when it was all over, he straightened her against the wall so that she would be ready to die for him again. It was the best thing in his life, just knowing she was there, waiting until the next time...But one day she wasn't there waiting...

Ruth Rendell was an exceptional crime writer, and will be remembered as a legend in her own lifetime. Her groundbreaking debut novel, From Doon With Death, was first published in 1964 and introduced the reader to her enduring and popular detective, Inspector Reginald Wexford, who went on to feature in twenty-four of her subsequent novels. With worldwide sales of approximately 20 million copies, Rendell was a regular Sunday Times bestseller. Her sixty bestselling novels include police procedurals, some of which have been successfully adapted for TV, stand-alone psychological mysteries, and a third strand of crime novels under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Very much abreast of her times, the Wexford books in particular often engaged with social or political issues close to her heart. Rendell won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with A Demon in My View, a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986, and the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990. In 2013 she was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer. Ruth Rendell died in May 2015. Her final novel, Dark Corners, is scheduled for publication in October 2015

As well as being a classic of suspense, this book marks the high point of Rendell's gift for seeing the comedy in tragedy. Her portrayal of the pompous and pious bachelor Arthur Johnson and his struggles to control his regrettable inclination towards serial murder is as hilarious as it is disturbing. -- Jake Kerridge * Telegraph * Wonderful at exploring the dark corners of the human mind, and the way private fantasies can clash and explode into terrifying violence * Daily Mail * The best mystery writer anywhere in the English-speaking world * Boston Globe * Rendell is unrivalled at depicting psychologically warped people and at creating unease through the simplest things. This is another triumph * Observer *