Ruth Rendell (and her other alias Barbara Vine) has long been a favorite author of mine. She usually writes mystery stories under the name Ruth Rendell, and other novels as Barbara Vine. The one thing common to all her books is that they have a disturbing undertone - at the beginning one is not sure who the characters are or what they will turn out to be.
Joyce Carol Oates has the greatest talent for creating the disturbed, strong and violent man. Ruth Rendell is the mistress of creating the weak villain. Her villains always end up committing crimes by accident or unintentionally, and show other aspects of their characters when trying to cover up those crimes.
This book is about a murderer stalking a London neighborhood. He takes trinkets from his victims which mysteriously turn up in a local antique shop. The odd characters who work in the antique shop and who pass through come under scrutiny, and it is there that Ruth Rendell shows her true skills as an author.
I find Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series slightly less entertaining than her stand-alone mysteries, but all her books are good reads nonetheless.
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