Thirteen Steps Down [Mass Market Paperback]

Mix Cellini is a gym equipment repair man of limited intellect but with a vivid imagination which, at the present time, is focused on the murders of Reginald Christie, the incredibly evil man who killed and THEN raped a large number of women in London in the 1940's. Mix is obsessed with the way Christie killed the women and then buried them, either in graves in his garden or in the wall cavities in his home.

Mixs' other main obsession is a beautiful, black model who is the subject of his fantasies and whom he stalks on every possible occasion.

Mix occupies the attic flat in the huge, mouldering house owned by Gwendolen Chawser, an old, eccentric spinster who lives among dirt and decay, and whose escape from reality is in her collection of fine books which she reads incessantly. Mix meets and brings home with him, a young girl whom he kills after a minor argument. He then thinks of how Christie would dispose of the body and emulates his methods, his mind and imagination fuelling a fast track to a nervous breakdown. He decides to get rid of Gwendolen in the same way after she becomes suspicious of his connection with the young girl who is now listed as a missing person. It is his plan to kill Gwendolen which proves to be his downfall.

I thoroughly enjoyed this latest Ruth Rendell novel and would recommend it to all of her fans.

Mix Chellini is the star of this latest novel by Ruth Rendell. An exercise equipment repairman whose IQ rivals his shoe size, Mix has two great passions in his life--an obsession with past serial killer, Reggie Christie, and an overwhelming fascination with beautiful model Nerissa Nash. Mix has all of the books ever written about Christie and takes great pleasure in exploring the area in which the serial killer lived. He haunts the places Nerissa frequents and spins fantasies about her continually.

Mix rents rooms on the top floor of an ancient home owned by Gwendolyn Chawser and has spent a great deal of his money, making the rooms liveable. To characterize Miss Chawser as eccentric is a gross understatement, and she and Mix are like oil and water. Each lives in a bizarre world of his/her own creation.

As is often the case with Ms Rendell's non-Inspector Wexford books, Thirteen Steps Down is not a mystery. Instead, it is a psychological thriller of the highest order, and the intricately woven plot and wonderful, in-depth character studies make this one of Rendell's finest efforts.

The rate at which Ruth Rendell turns out material is a mystery in and of itself. Maybe she never bothers to sleep. Maybe she has a squad of highly creative, shrewd and literate elves in the cellar. Maybe she types with one hand and eats with the other. Whatever the explanation, neither time nor output seems to dilute her prowess or diminish her invention. No wonder she needs a second name (it is Barbara Vine).

Thirteen Steps Down, like its predecessor The Rottweiler, has a sizeable and varied cast of characters who intersect at a primary location: in this case, the dilapidated Victorian mansion of aging and testy Gwendolyn Chawcer. She rents out a room to Mix, a sociopath whose obsessions are divided between serial killer Reg Christie and a rather vacuous, naive supermodel. What landlady and tenet have in common, cobwebs and crumbling roof aside, is mutual contempt, a skewed impression of

reality and a self-satisfied conviction to the contrary. As Mix researches his hero and pursues means of winning the lovely and celebrated hand of Nerissa Nash, Gwendolyn becomes fixated on

establishing contact with a man last seen some fifty years before, whom she regards as having been her suitor. Neither has the slightest inkling that perception may well fail to align with fact, and produce catastrophe when acted on.

Events weave the past in with the present as characters criss-cross each others' paths, sometimes coming face to face, sometimes missing each other - and the dire implications - only by minutes. Gradually, as Gwendolyn subsides into tattered, dust-covered caprice and Mix gives way to homicidal temper, the threads come together to reveal the inevitable whole. The warp and weft of tension is maintained throughout, dotted with coincidence, incision and sardonic humor.

Even secondary characters achieve vitality, sometimes displaying a delightful refusal to yield to type. Cultures and classes teem the streets of Notting Hill: a grandiloquent neighbor with the deportment of a soldier and a penchant for fairy lights; a caftaned psychic whose advice is not quite as off-mark as she thinks; her timid receptionist, rendered gullible by loneliness; Gwendolyn's loyal but barely-tolerated pair of friends, whose family ties are crucial to the plot's weave. All contribute to the novel's ambiance and vigor. Last, but not least, is the house itself: as much of an anachronism as

the woman who inhabits it and, like her, a little sinister, a little ludicrous, entirely unapologetic but yielding, inevitably, to time and neglect.

This is a psychological study, not a mystery. After all, while murder is done, we know who done it; what is unclear is whether it will be noticed at all, or solved it if is. What keeps one turning pages well past bedtime is the presence of characters whose motives and triggers remain believable long after they themselves have crossed the line that divides "quirky" from "delusional". Mix Cellini is a madman, but his hunger for acclaim and inability to empathize is absolutely plausible. Gwendolyn Chawcer is a haughty, condescending snob, but also self-reliant, witty and curiously compelling. Both make us flinch, both engender sympathy. Neither is presented with a shred of sentimentality: they are their own respective (and corollary) disasters -- at once victims and products of social class, upbringing and experience.

The pleasure of Rendell's work is in the telling: adroit, witty, intelligent writing that neither cheats nor condescends. She understands the wheels and cogs that drive nominal mundanity, and through understated exploration reveals that little is ever what it seems: everyone has secrets. Some are poisonous. Some are simply fatuous, delusional or sad. But all are recognizably human, and each, even the well-intentioned ones, have consequences.

Whether signing in as Ruth Rendell or Barbara Vine, she is a master craftsman, and Thirteen Steps Down does not disappoint.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 44 reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars