The Keys to the Street (Random House Large Print) - Softcover

Rendell, Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679774033 ISBN 13: 9780679774037

Publisher: Random House Large Print, 1996

Synopsis

Set in and around London's Regent's Park, where the city's wealthiest, poorest, kindest, and most vicious citizens all cross paths, The Keys to the Street tells of the deadly thanks a young woman risks receiving in return for an act of selfless generosity.

"Is it true that we dislike those who have done us a service?" asks Mary Jago's grandmother. One of many questions about the best and worst of human nature, it is one with an answer Mary will discover for herself as a consequence of donating her own bone marrow to save the life of a young man she doesn't know....

"It's us he's after," says Dill, "our sort." Dill's sort are the homeless who seek refuge in the park, whose corpses have lately been turning up impaled on the spiked railings that surround it....

Mary is not their sort at all and would under ordinary circumstances be separated from such horror by social barriers stronger than iron bars. But she has performed a bold act, and the circumstances of her life are now extraordinary -- she is receptive to previously undreamed of happiness, and vulnerable to the darkest grief.

About this title

Review

Discovering Ruth Rendell late must be like discovering Mozart late: any regrets for time wasted are overwhelmed by the pleasure of having so many treats to choose from. She writes mysteries about Inspector Wexford and suspense thrillers about what happens when people's lives accidently collide. This new book falls into the thriller category: in the first few pages we meet a large group of people living in and around London's Regents Park. There are the homeless, whose hardships are added to when a murderer begins to decimate their ranks; a barely-restrained lunatic who works as a dog-walker; a drug dealer and his violent helper; and Rendell's central character, Mary Jago, a gentle young woman whose courageous charity brings her lots of trouble. The best recent Wexford mystery is Simisola; other recommended Rendells include: From Doon With Death, The Tree of Hands, An Unkindness of Ravens and The Brimstone Wedding (written under her Barbara Vine alter ego).

From the Publisher

London's wealthiest, poorest, kindest, and most vicious citizens all cross paths in Regents Park. Quiet, pretty Mary Jago could never have suspected that a series of unspeakable murders in the park contained threads that tangled around her simple, ordinary life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Large Print
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0679774033
• ISBN 13: 9780679774037
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 470