The Keys to the Street

Ruth Barbara Rendell (1930-2015)

ISBN 10: 0517706857 / ISBN 13: 9780517706855

Published by Crown Publishers Inc, New York, 1996

About this Item

326 pages. Royal octavo (9 1/4" x 6 1/4:) bound in original publisher's quarter black cloth with gilt lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. First American edition. The Keys to the Street is a crime novel by British writer Ruth Rendell from 1996. Against the will of her boyfriend, Alistair, Mary Jago volunteers to donate bone marrow. He beats her after finding out, so she breaks up with him and goes house-sitting for a rich couple in London. Leslie Bean, an old dog-walker, comes there twice a day to take the shih tzu Gushi out along with five other dogs. Mary makes an appointment with Leo Nash, the leukemia patient whose life she prolonged. Although he's secretive about his private life and doesn't want her to see his brother she starts an affair with him, much to the dislike of Alistair. Homeless people live in and around Regent's Park, including Roman Ashton, who's actually rich but prefers the street life since his wife and children died in a traffic accident. When Effie, a homeless woman, finds a corpse over the spikes of the park gate, he makes an anonymous phone call to the police. The victim is John Dominic Cahill, a homeless Irishman known as Decker. The newspaper nickname the killer 'The Impaler'. A second victim follows: James "Pharaoh" Clancy, a homeless man who was always wearing keys around his neck. DI William Marnock starts suspecting Bean, because he has accused the victim of beating him up and had plans to pay Hob, a drug addict, to beat up Pharaoh. In the meantime Mary starts asking questions about Leo and his mysterious brother. Condition: Near fine in a fine jacket.

Seller Inventory # L1479

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Keys to the Street
• Publisher: Crown Publishers Inc, New York
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0517706857
• ISBN 13: 9780517706855
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Weight: 2 pounds
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature

About this title

Synopsis

Set in and around London's Regents Park, where the city's wealthiest, poorest, kindest, and most vicious citizens all cross paths, this newest novel by the Edgar and Gold Dagger-winning author of Crocodile Bird tells of the deadly thanks a young woman risks receiving in return for an act of selfless generosity.

From the Back Cover

round London's Regents Park, where the city's wealthiest, poorest, kindest, and most vicious citizens all cross paths, this newest novel by the Edgar and Gold Dagger-winning author of Crocodile Bird tells of the deadly thanks a young woman risks receiving in return for an act of selfless generosity.