- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Arrow; New edition edition (Aug 27 1992)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0099434709
- ISBN-13: 978-0099434702
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 100 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #384,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"The web is spun with fiendish skill." – Observer
"Domestic dramas exploding into deaths and murders…Threads are drawn tightly together in a lethal last pattern." – Sunday Times
"Domestic dramas exploding into deaths and murders…Threads are drawn tightly together in a lethal last pattern." – Sunday Times
Book Description
Once, when Benet was fourteen, she and her mother had been alone in a train carriage when she had tried to stab her with a carving knife. It has been some time since Benet had seen her mad mother so when she arrives at the airport, Benet tries not to hate her. But then the tragic death of a child begins a chain of deception, kidnap Liza and her mother have led a strange, enclosed life together in their remote home. But all this must end.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like mother, like daughter,
By
This review is from: The Tree of Hands (Hardcover)
Wow, what a book!I laughed, cried, got angry and was totally shocked at this book!The characters are so believable.Here you have this sweet, lonely woman who is trying to balance a writing carrer and raising a child on her own.Her mother: Bitter, confused and lonely herself believes that if you lose something....that's okay..."I'll get you another one."The story takes off like a roller coaster ride and ends leaving the reader totally shocked.This book would make a great motion picture!Gary
4.0 out of 5 stars
Masterful writing (if a bit bleak),
By Carol Peterson Hennekens (Colorado Springs, CO United States) - See all my reviews Still, the bleakness of the story is a small price for the chance to read this intriguing tale of three lives that are at once spiraling out of control and towards each other. Most interesting is the story of Benet. When Benet's toddler son dies of illness, Benet's mentally ill mother brings home another boy of the same age. Benet is aghast but doesn't want her mother (or herself) to be arrested for kidnapping. Then she discovers the child has been abused. At the same time, the boyfriend of the biological mother is falsely accused of the boy's murder and we watch his world unravel. A third plot is added latter which is more tangentially related. Rendell spins this tale in a way that captured even me, a reluctant reader. In one sense it was a depressing read but at the same time I was captivated and eager to read another chapter. "The Tree of Hands" is hardly a conventional murder mystery but it is an excellant example of pyschological suspense.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ruth Rendell excells again!,
By Shirley Bruk (South Africa) - See all my reviews Benet's world, a world about to be shattered. Benet is an author and single mother who has created a life for herself and her 18-month old son. She has managed to come to terms with her past i.e.growing up with a self-centered, mentally unstable mother and ending an unsuitable relationship with the father of her child. Her child, James, is pivotal to her existence. She encounters Rendellesque situations i.e. being emotionally torn between her mother and child, having the one ripped away and the other intensifying the pain yet ironically leading her to her salvation, having to choose between her newly-found soulmate and the child, being torn between what is legally and morally right as opposed to what is emotionally right. Perhaps the ending could have been better but then book endings are often not as good as the rest of the book deserves. Perhaps it is merely the fact that a good book has ended that makes one feel a little "empty" at the end. Read it!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
