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Rating: 
Summary: Going Through a Phase
Review: I "discovered" Ruth Rendell some twenty-five years ago. I was overseas and books in English were hard to find and expensive when you could find them. From time to time, my mother would send me a carton of paperbacks that she had chosen from secondhand bookshops and library sales. She was guessing at what might interest me. The combination of her good judgment and my desperation for books of any kind meant that I usually read or at least started to read just about everything in the carton.One carton included Rendell's One Across, Two Down. I didn't read much detective fiction or murder mysteries, but I had gone through an Agatha Christie phase in my teens, and later I would go through a similar Sue Grafton phase. Ruth Rendell's book was unlike anything I had read. There was no hero ("protagonist," the author in The Chimney Sweeper's Boy would correct me) in the conventional sense. None of the characters was particularly likeable. I couldn't identify with any of them. But I was fascinated by the odd story and couldn't stop reading until I had finished. I continue to be a Rendell fan, but I prefer her work as Barbara Vine, the psychological thrillers with no hero. However, I have no patience for Inspector Wexford. This still leaves dozens of Rendell books for me to read, when I am in a rare mood for fiction. The Chimney Sweeper's Boy is a fine thriller. The characters are fascinating, the plot moves along like a pulp novel, and I really wanted to know what happens next. And like many thrillers and throw-away fiction, I didn't know what was going to happen until the author wanted me to know. I thought I knew several times, but I was wrong. Everything was tied up in a neat package at the end. Unfortunately, as with much fiction, The Chimney Sweeper's Boy doesn't bear scrutiny. As I stopped to think about the story after I was done, I became less satisfied. Real people wouldn't act like that, would they? And the shocking revelation didn't strike me as being quite as earth-shattering as the characters seemed to think it was. Come to think of it, I haven't much cared for the last few Rendell books I have read. Grasshopper was far too long and I actually found myself skimming the last third. The Blood Doctor was tedious. Can it be that I have come to the end of a twenty-five year Ruth Rendell phase?
Rating: 
Summary: Her heart wasn't in it
Review: I am also a big fan of Barbara Vine. I loved both A Dark-Adapted Eye and A Fatal Inversion. I almost didn't finish this one, but ploughed through only out of a sense of loyalty to the author. There is a description of one of Gerald Candless' novels, something to the effect of "his heart wasn't in it, or maybe the heat got to him." I feel that way about The Chimney Sweeper's Boy. None of the characters really came alive for me and, as others have said, the plot was predictable. The only thing I really found intriguing was the relationship between Sarah and Adam. I hope that others will give Vine's other books a try - there's so much more that she's capable of.
Rating:
Summary: AN INCREDIBLE MORAL DILEMMA
Review: This was my first Barbara Vine book and I must admit that I hated the first 50 pages and almost put it down. I could not find one redeeming quality in any of the characters. I'm glad I continued because it was one of my favorite reads of '98 in this genre. I have since ordered all of Vine's books and even some of those that she wrote as Ruth Rendall. I felt that the plot was intricately woven especially how it tied into the title of the book. I can guarantee that you won't be disappointed with this choice.
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