The Face of Trespass

This book was excellent. I had not read anything else by the author prior to this point, but look forward to reading more of her works. The plot twists are amazing. I knew that something was going to happen, and it was going to be bad...but didn't know what. Which is surprising nowadays because so many books are so easy to figure out half way through. The characters are wonderful too.

Two years ago Gray Lanceton was a promising writer with one successful novel under his belt. But, then he met Drusilla, a bored, rich, unstable yet magnetic young woman, and his life was changed forever. Now he lives in quiet exile in a small messy cottage, with only the surrounding trees and his own obsessive destroying thoughts for company. Their affair is now over, and he hopes that maybe now he can be free. But, unbeknownst to Gray, tragedy lurks still above him, the shadow of Drusilla and her violent desires will soon threaten to rob him of any of that freedom he thought he had clawed back...This short book is a little piece of genius. It is a great great shame that many of these early novels of hers remain out of print, because they really are excellent. This one in particular is a wonderful yet chilling character study, which is what several of them tend to be, their lengths being what they are. While her later books are longer and can probe the psychological depths of many characters with greater ease, these early short gems tend to focus their intense insight on one major character, and she manages with effortless ease to present a completely whole, completely real, somewhat disturbing, portrait of a single fascinating character, in this case the reclusive, eerily human writer Graham Lanceton, who is actually quite likeable, which is rare for Rendell. It is a tale of desire, violence, freedom and of obsession, with each element explored wonderfully within a riveting plot. She has a wonderfully polished writing style, and creates a tale that is both claustrophobic and atmospheric. All the aspects of the plot click together wonderfully. No event is superfluous, every occurrence has its purpose and its effect, which creates a wonderful whole and round effect to the book. Book with stories that weave and interlock so well are a joy, they are more fulfilling and the effect makes the writer seem darn clever, and this is a prime. The Face of Trespass is dark, compelling, and psychologically brilliant. The final cataclysmic events are shocking and yet sensible. In fiction, this is becoming very rare.

This is my 12th Ruth Rendell book and I think each is better than the last. They are not as good to me when I listen to them on audio book. I wonder why? Gray loves Druscilla so much but cannot bring himself to commit the crime she requests. Then he has to go to France to see about his dying Mother. It is so hard to write a review of this very complicated novel which is so good. You know something bad is going to happen to someone but you don't know who, when, where or why. I love that type of novel. Read it, you won't regret it. I am going to get all her works, if it's the last thing I ever do!!!!!!11

THE FACE OF TREPASS falls into that category of early Rendell classics that have since fallen out of print. A pity--this is one of Rendell's most enjoyable, involving, and finely tuned performances. An author, obsessed by his memories of a passionate but dangerous love affair, shuts himself up in a filthy hovel for months and months, willing himself to forget...it's a wonderful setup for Rendell's typically inventive plot twists, peppered with dead-on psychological insight.Rendell's boundless strengths as a mystery writer and an anatomist of the human condition are fully in evidence here. She demonstrates once more her perfect mastery of tone and pace, as well as her gift for wicked wit--THE FACE OF TRESPASS is not just a superior thriller; it can also be an extremely funny book in certain places. And like all of the author's novels, there is a wonderfully effective buildup of psychological tension, a sense of inevitable tragedy that is brilliantly sustained--impressive, considering that THE FACE OF TRESPASS doesn't feature a single gunfight or car chase. Nothing here but delicious prose, shrewd social observation, marvelous character study, and a deft plot that serves up surprise after surprise. The story is marred only by a contrived conclusion that offers a false sense of security, usually absent in Rendell's bleak novels. Still, a wonderfully rich choice for fans of intelligent suspense fiction.

A off-beat writer, somewhat reclusive by nature, discovers how little he knows of himslef, his lover and life in general. Again, a wonderful Rendell story of obsession, and betrayal, particularly self-betrayal. Interesting sub-plot involving main characters mother and step-father. Good ending, and good begining, with everthing tying in together, and the character wondering to himself, at the bitter end, as always, why was I so blind, and Rendell showing someones real life is always one heartbeat away from what he thinks it is. Another fascinating exploration of loneliness, the need to love, the treachery one encounters thereby.