From an Edgar Award-winning author: Murder intrudes on a student’s secret history of the London Underground in this “brilliantly unexpected” mystery (The Times, London). Jarvis Stringer is a young man of many peculiarities, but no obsession has taken hold quite like that of writing the strange and twisting history of the London Underground. To finance his project, he rents out cheap rooms in … project, he rents out cheap rooms in the long-disused West Hampstead schoolhouse he inherited–a crumbling monument to morbid local lore.
The boarders, each eking out their invisible lives above–and beneath–the city’s surface, are a collection of strays, waifs, subway buskers, and loners, who are raising the concern of Jarvis’s relatives and more proper neighbors. But even Jarvis has become suspicious. One of his outcasts may be a killer who’s plotting something unforgettable and catastrophic–and Jarvis himself has unwittingly become a conspirator.
“A jolting novel of psychological suspense,” King Solomon’s Carpet was the recipient of the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award (The New York Times Book Review).
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Every book I’ve ever read by Barbara Vine or Ruth Rendell was at the top of my list. There’s so many to choose from. My personal favorite is The Tree of Hands. No matter what you pick you will not forget it for a long long time, if ever.
Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine) was a great writer and as such her novels possess an inherent readability. I for one am generally happy to keep soldiering on, even when the going gets stodgy. King Solomon’s Carpet, however, tested this principle to the limit.
I reckon I spent a good three-quarters of the book hoping that the disparate threads …
Juicy, creepy psychological novel as only Ruth Rendell can write. Loved it!
This is a very strange book. It’s like Bradbury decided that his characters shou!d be yelling all the time, as well as dashing around rapidly. Bradbury’s true writing belongs to ominous circuses, and Uncle Einar. Read those books instead.
It’s not as good as most of the Barbara Vine books. It felt like she threw in all sorts of weird situations but they didn’t tie together.
Very odd story. Ends abruptly. Sad.
So many subplots- it was sometimes hard to keep them straight. Very tragic.
I am a big fan of Ruth Rendall but do not care for the Barbara Vine books. This book was not as obsessive as some of the other Barbara Vine books but I finished it with the same feeling. When I finished it was “ what was the point?”
The characters are nearly always heavily flawed, so the book is a bit dark.
Ruth Rendell has always been one of my favorite authors. This one was a bit tedious- due to the technical explanations of the subways- but still surprising and realistic. She never disappoints.
Loved it’s
My problem with the book is that I was expecting it to be a mystery, and it really isn’t. I’m the future, I plan to read it again to see if I like it when I am less definitely in the mood for something else. Then I can update the review, and be fair about it.
interesting information on underground railways.
Brilliant as always. Her chars are amazing
sorry but I could not finish this book, I found the characters boring and unlikeable.
Just couldn’t get into it