King Solomon's Carpet

With a 5 star rating I had to try reading this book, but the description of the book on the back cover drew me into it. I was sorely disappointed.

I picked this book up just to see what it was about and to review the first page before deciding it buy it.However once i started reading I couldn't stop and just had to abandon all the other novels I was reading.I haven't finished it yet but am finding it fasinating.In typical Vine fashion this novel is rich in detail and very atmospheric.There is a lot of history explained about the underground which I've found very interesting.Highly recommended!

This book is so far beyond an ordinary suspense novel that it seems in a class by itself. The many characters are fascinating, almost hypnotically so, and because this is Barbara Vine, you know that somehow, at the finish,no matter how different they are, how unrelated they may seem, they'll come together in an end you can't predict and yet, when it happens, has a horrible inevitability. She lives up to her accolades as the best in her field, and this is one of her most ambitious and accomplished performances. A simply stunning novel. The use of multiple points of view reminds me of Stephen King's THE STAND, except, in its way, this is a far scarier story. It doesn't need the failure of the Disease Control Center in Atlanta for its aura of dread. It depends on something much more frightening: human nature.

This story is told quite brilliantly. All the characters are wonderfully drawn, and all are INCREDIBLY interesting. From Jed, the loner who lives on the top floor of the house and keeps his hawk in the garden. To Jarvis, the owner of the house who is obsessed by underground systems and is writing a book chronicling them. To Alice, the young mother who has run away from her humdrum life, leaving her daughter and husband behind. And then there is Tom, the busker who once aimed to study at a musical college, but is now content to play for the armies of people who walk through London's cavernous Tube. Then there is young Jasper, who, along with his friends, finds his thrills amid the bustle of the dangerous underground. And then, Axle. The enigmatic, strange man whom little is known about, and whose secret will cast shadows over all their lives. The story is told brilliantly, as i say. All the charaters living in the old schoolhouses each have a different part in the story, and rarely do their own seperate stories interact, until the end. It is like watching several little planets revolving around the sun (in this story the sun is the london underground system). Their orbits do not cross, but still they revolve around the main body of the story, until they are finally drawn together. Rendell skips between each persons's story (each persons story varies greatly) wonderfully, while the reader hardly notices the transition. The climax is not completely unexpected, but i often find that that is the beauty of Vine/Rendell. You can sometimes see or tell what is going to happen, and you know that absolutely nothing any of the characters can do to prevent the inevitable awfullness. At first i thought the ending was shocking, and powerful but anticlimatic. Then i realised it is shocking and powerful BECAUSE it is anticlimatic. (Rather like when we meet Hannibal Lecter...we are shocked by him because we were expecting a monster.)

King Solomon's Carpet is a rich tapestry of unforgettable characters and events that haunt you long after the book is put down. For a long time I put off reading it because I didn't know what King Solomon's Carpet referred to, which turned out to be the London Underground. If you like this book you'll probably also enjoy A Dark Adapted Eye and The Brimstone Wedding.

Having read all Ruth Rendell's books as either herself (I'm actually half way through "A sight for Sore Eyes" at present) or Barbara Vine, I think this is my personal favourite, but I sympathise with those who didn't like it. Perhaps a knowledge of the London Underground system is necessary to get really into it. I do have the advantage of living in England and knowing many of the places she discusses. Barbara Vine books are not really crime novels, so the fact that no crime really happens till nearly the end shoudl not surprise. I would recommend A Dark Adapted Eye to the person who found King Solomon's Carpet hard work.