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| The Water's Lovely (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) | 
 enlarge | Author: Ruth Rendell
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $5.90
You Save: $8.05 (58%)
New (42) Used (22) from $1.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 15441
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0307388018
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780307388018
ASIN: 0307388018
Publication Date: August 12, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
When Ismay and Heather's stepfather was discovered dead in the bathtub nine years ago, the police concluded the drowning was an accident. But Ismay has always silently suspected that Heather might have had something to do with it. Now they're older and their lives seem to be moving happily forward. But when Heather becomes seriously involved with a man for the first time, Ismay's long-repressed memories can no longer be ignored. With painful inevitability, Ismay learns that she may not able to keep the dark truth hidden forever.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
 Dark Water July 17, 2007
30 out of 37 found this review helpful
In a house on a quiet street in London, a wall has been built to seal off an old, disused bathroom. The family that lives there--two troubled sisters and their emotionally shattered mother--never speak of the wall or what it conceals, but they think about it all the time. It's ironic that these women should be so focused on a bathtub, because they constantly wonder--like Lady Macbeth--if they will ever be washed clean of the crime that was committed there....
Welcome to the world of Ruth Rendell. She is my favorite mystery writer, and THE WATER'S LOVELY is one of her best. That's all I'm going to say. Highly, highly recommended.
Truly chilling January 7, 2007
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
As a die hard Ruth Rendell fan I am always very excited when a new novel by her is published. `The Water's Lovely' completely lived up to my hopes and is a great addition to Rendell's amazing back catalogue of work.
The two central characters are Ismay and Heather, sisters who share a murderous secret. The novel follows the two women as they both find love and struggle to keep it. The book is about as far from a romance novel as it is possible to get - Ismay's lover, for example, is overbearing and boorish and Heather's lover has a poisonous hypochondriac of a mother. As usual, Rendell turns the thumbscrews to create a novel where the tension builds and builds to a satisfying if quietly horrific climax.
The characters are believable and the plot is twisty and clever. Perhaps coincidence plays rather too big a part in the resolution of a certain plot point, but the book is so well-written and interesting that I couldn't force myself to care very much. Also, some of the dialogue doesn't ring true because ordinary 20-somethings simply do not talk in the way that Rendell writes, but I personally enjoy her use of language so I wouldn't want this to be changed although it is not realistic. The book has some very good subplots, such as the aunt of Ismay and Heather searching for romance and finding something much more terrifying instead and a woman who preys on old people for their money. There is also a real shock on the last page that is very thought-provoking.
Overall, I highly recommend this book and I'm sure dedicated Rendell fans will not be disappointed.
Places to Live July 17, 2007
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
I was so eager for Ruth Rendell's latest that I ordered The Water's Lovely from Canada last year before it was published in the U.S. I tried to read it slowly to make the pleasure last, but midway through I was gripped and abandoned myself to a pell mell pace. The book is at once wrenching and poignant and funny. Marion is my absolute favorite character, an often blundering but eventually triumphant manipulator. She dances through the storyline, alighting on each character for a pas de deux, before skittering away, always with a new plot and ploy, never discouraged. The theme of these intermingled tales - and tales they are, disparate lives that intertwine - seems to be a search for home. So many of the characters are motivated and defined by seeking a place to live. From the homeless beggar who keeps returning to his sister's flat, to the duplex where Ismay and Heather live, many of the plot twists turn on living circumstances. Perhaps the intermingling of the characters' fates has more than a touch of coincidence - but then our lives are full of coincidence, and maybe it is not just coincidence, but fate. Rendell is brilliant as ever, indeed diabolical. Once again, as in Thirteen Steps Down, she leaves the zinger for the last sentence. Don't look!
 Strong Start, Weak Finish August 19, 2007
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
At the beginning of The Water's Lovely Ruth Rendell proves once more that she is a master of psychological suspense. Two sisters live in a flat which was once the first floor of their family home. Upstairs, in a separate flat live their insane mother and her caretaker sister. What trauma has caused this strange situation? Years earlier, a crime was committed, and the family has been living with the after-effects ever since. Gradually, the family's troubles spread to include some of their friends and acquaintances and other more distant connections. These characters are not secondary to the story, but become an integral part of it as their own lives and difficulties turn out to be interwoven.
This buildup which takes place in the first half or so of the book is among the finest writing Rendell has done. Unfortunately, she appears to have lost interest in the book at about the midway mark and from then on seems to be rushing to get things wound up and finished. A major plot segment turns on a coincidence so unlikely that it makes the reader lose confidence in the plot. At the end, what seemed to have been some tantalizing buildups to some shocking revelations turn out to be leadins to rather dull conclusions. At the end, the reader is left hanging as to the outcome of some intended marriages and future developments, which might be tantalizing if we cared more about the characters. Since the second half disappoints, we don't really care much about what happens to any of them beyond a strong desire to kick a few across the room in disgust. That maybe what Rendell intended, but the feeling that she just finished the book to fulfill a contractual obligation is too strong to make that really believable.
 Worst of Rendell September 21, 2007
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I've read nearly everything by Ruth Rendell (and works as Barbara Vine), including all of the Inspector Wexford books. The woman is good, very good, but this book is a disaster. The writing of Water's Lovely is forced, the plot depends totally on improbable coincidences, and worst of all, there isn't a single attractive character in the book.
How can this book average four stars? Come on folks, I read comments that concurred with my observations, but were rather generous with the stars. I cannot recommend this at all. Read almost anything else by Rendell and enjoy.
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