Book description
A classic Rendellian loner, Mix Cellini is superstitious about the
number 13. Living in a decaying house in Notting Hill, Mix is obsessed
with 10 Rillington Place, where the notorious John Christie committed
a series of foul murders. He is also infatuated with a beautiful model
who lives nearby - a woman who would not look at him twice.
Mix's landlady, Gwendolen Chawcer is equally reclusive - living her
life through her library of books.
Both landlady and lodger are caught up in their own psychologically
twisted parallel worlds. But when reality intrudes into Mix's life, a
long pent-up violence explodes.
Ruth Rendell is the Queen of British crime writing. The author of
over 50 novels, she has won many significant crime fiction awards. Her
first novel, From Doon With Death, appeared in 1964, and since
then her reputation and readership have grown steadily with each new
book.
She has received major awards for her work; three Edgars from the
Mystery Writers of America; the Crime Writers' Gold Dagger Award for
1976's best crime novel, A Demon in My View; the Arts Council
National Book Award for Genre Fiction in 1981 for The Lake of
Darkness; the Crime Writer's Gold Dagger Award for 1986's best
crime book for Live Flesh; in 1987 the Crime Writer's Gold
Dagger Award for A Fatal Inversion and in 1991 the same award
for King Solomon's Carpet, both written under the pseudonym
Barbara Vine; the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990; and in
1991 the Crime Writer's Cartier Diamond Award for outstanding
contribution to the crime fiction genre.
Her books are translated into 21 languages. In 1996 she was awarded
the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.
