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    Dark Corners
    Dark Corners
    Dark Corners
    Audiobook7 hours

    Dark Corners

    Written by Ruth Rendell

    Narrated by Ric Jerrom

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    “A spectacularly creepy and macabre tale” (Entertainment Weekly) of blackmail, murders both accidental and opportunistic, and of one life’s fateful unraveling—from Ruth Rendell, “one of the most remarkable novelists of her generation” (People), writing at her most mesmerizing. Rendell completed Dark Corners shortly before her death in 2015.

    When his father dies, Carl Martin inherits a house in an increasingly rich and trendy London neighborhood. Cash poor, Carl rents the upstairs room and kitchen to the first person he interviews, Dermot McKinnon. That is mistake number one. Mistake number two is keeping the bizarre collection of homeopathic and alternative “cures” that his father left in the medicine cabinet, including a stash of controversial diet pills. Mistake number three is selling fifty of those diet pills to a friend, who is then found dead.

    Dermot seizes a nefarious opportunity and begins to blackmail Carl, refusing to pay rent, and creepily invading Carl’s space. Ingeniously weaving together two storylines that finally merge in a shocking turn, Ruth Rendell describes one man’s spiral into darkness—and murder—as he falls victim to a diabolical foe he cannot escape.

    This is brilliant psychological suspense that gets under your skin. As Stephen King says, “No one surpasses Ruth Rendell when it comes to stories of obsession, instability, and malignant coincidence.” Dark Corners, her last book, “ranks among her best” (The Washington Post).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateOct 27, 2015
    ISBN9781442391352
    Dark Corners
    Author

    Ruth Rendell

    Ruth Rendell (1930–2015) won three Edgar Awards, the highest accolade from Mystery Writers of America, as well as four Gold Daggers and a Diamond Dagger for outstanding contribution to the genre from England’s prestigious Crime Writ­ers’ Association. Her remarkable career spanned a half century, with more than sixty books published. A member of the House of Lords, she was one of the great literary figures of our time.

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    Reviews for Dark Corners

    3.5/5

    135 ratings15 reviews

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    • 3/5
      A dark, dragging novel, full of unlikable characters, and unrelated incidences, which do not make sense. I found it hard to believe the main character was so dumb..
    • 2/5
      Disappointed after loving the Inspector Wexford novels. This just kept feeling like it was spinning out of control but not with satisfying connections.
    • 3/5
      More of. 2.5 for this short novel. I found it to be ridiculous in its plot, it's characters completely whiny and unlikable, and ridiculous. Give it a miss.
    • 4/5
      A wonderful era ended for Ruth Rendell fans on May 2, 2015 when the author died as the result of a stroke she suffered a few days earlier. Rendell produced mysteries under her real name and under the pen name Barbara Vine so regularly, for so many years, that it is still hard for fans to realize that there will be no more. Dark Corners, published about six months after her death, is the last of them.As the story opens, Carl Martin is a writer with one published work to his name, but that novel, Death’s Door, had not exactly made him a rich man. Carl is living in a house recently inherited from his father, and because he has no source of income other than his writing, he decides to take on a border. Luckily for Carl, because the house is in one of London’s trendier neighborhoods, he easily locates a border willing to pay him 1200 pounds per month for the three upstairs rooms. That, though, would turn out to be a huge mistake, one Carl will regret for the rest of his life.Along with the house, Carl inherited its contents, among them his father’s vast collection of homeopathic “medicines” and cure-alls – including a stash of diet pills that are as likely to kill the person taking them as they are to help her shed a few unwanted pounds. Unfortunately for Carl (and especially for his friend Stacey), that is exactly what happens when he lets Stacey talk him into selling her fifty of the pills. Carl’s border recognizes a good blackmail opportunity when he sees one, and after Stacey’s body is discovered, he begins to “reverse blackmail” Carl by refusing to pay his monthly rent.In a side plot (which will tellingly crash into Carl’s world soon enough), a one-time friend of the dead Stacey’s has taken to living in Stacey’s apartment where she will remain until being forced out by the dead woman’s family. In her trademark fashion, Rendell explores deeply both the backgrounds of her characters and what is going on inside their heads. She wants her readers to understand why her characters do the things they do, but seldom has an entire cast of her characters been as flawed as the one in Dark Corners. Victims and criminals are, in fact, so much alike that the reader is hard pressed to find one to root for in this tale of blackmail, murder, and unintended consequences. Dark Corners is not destined to become my favorite Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine novel. Nor is it, in my estimation, one of her better books, but because it is her last it will always have a place somewhere on my shelves and in my memory.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      Very disappointing. Ruth Rendell has written FAR better novels than this. Someone in my reading group suggested she didn't write it - that it was bits of pieces of stuff she had written shoe horned together by someone else. I wouldn't be surprised. It was unrealistic, it was supposed to be modern but felt like the 50s. Please pick something else by Ruth Rendell to read instead - you'll have a much better time.
    • 3/5
      My 1st Ruth Rendell - I am thinking I should have made a different title as my 1st Rendell - this was ok, short and quick - basically how an average guy gets caught doing something he shouldn't have done, and although not technically illegal ends up being reverse blackmailed by his 2nd floor tenant- this occurs, simply because he doesn't want bad press and the well known person involved is dead. This leads to paranoia, then murder and then...2nd attempt of murder --- The end was a bit of moral lesson. I am not sure I would recommend but if you like a Twilight Zone twist of a Murder she Wrote type theme... then this might be for you!
    • 3/5
      Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell is a 2015 Scribner publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Ruth Rendell, who also wrote as Barbara Vine, passed away in 2015, just a few months before this book was published. I had planned on centering a blog post around Ruth, featuring a review of this, her final book, but sadly, every time I picked it up, I could not, for the life of me, stay interested. But, I needed to turn in a review for the book, one way or another, so I started all over from the beginning, and forged ahead, determined to make it all the way through, without giving up. Carl, a novelist, inherits his father’s large and unusual supply of home remedies, along with a nice home, but needs help making ends meet, so he rents out an upstairs room, and quickly becomes rather dependent on that income. When his friend, Stacey, an actress, desperate to lose weight, sees his father’s diet pills, Carl agrees to sell her some, a transaction Carl’s new tenant witnesses. So, when Stacey dies suddenly, the pills being a major contributor to her death, Carl finds himself suffering from a moral dilemma, and worried he could be held responsible. But, his problems are compounded by his tenant’s decision to blackmail Carl. From here the story becomes a cat and mouse game between Carl and his tenant, with a slight amount of dark humor tossed in. Carl, who is normally a little bland and mild-mannered, begins to slowly unravel as his conscience weighs on him and he begins to crumble under the pressure of being blackmailed and the ever present possibility his dark secret will be exposed. Alongside this story, is a secondary thread, that slowly intersects with Carl’s story, and while it’s rather odd, it was also weirdly absorbing. Although I was determined to get this book finished, I still found it very slow going, and plodded through it at a very slow rate of speed. It was not until the second half of the book that things really started to pick up and the suspense began to build in earnest. Despite the fact that my interest was finally peaked, the story was still pretty predictable, except for Lizzie’s situation, which I could never quite figure out. The plot was rather clever, but not exactly unique. For me the ending was extremely abrupt and just plain… well plain. I felt like I had gone through all of this for nothing, although I probably should have guessed this was how things would play out. I really hate that this was Ruth’s last impression, because this is not her best effort. But, one must remember that the author was in her mid-eighties when she passed and I certainly hope my mind will be that sharp if I am lucky to live that long. I have a nice collection of Ruth Rendell novels and a smattering of her Barbara Vine stories too. I enjoyed the long running Inspector Wexford series as well, and someday I hope to complete my collection of those books. I still plan to feature Ruth on the blog someday and pay tribute to her and her work, as she was one of my favorite mystery writers for a long time. Even though this book failed to make a huge impression on me, it’s still a solid enough effort, and any diehard fan of Ruth Rendell will want to add this book to their collection.
    • 5/5
      I'm just sorry that this is the very last book by Ruth Rendell.
    • 4/5
      Spoilers!Though I haven’t equally liked all of Rendell’s enormous back-catalog, I have never left a book of hers unfinished. Dark Corners was almost my first. She is so good at portraying the ultimate passive, non-confrontational male. Carl is one of those people who needs a good shaking. At first, I thought Nicola would do the honors, but she flakes out on him and he ignores what good advice she was able to give before said flaking. Everything that befalls him is his own fault and he lets it get out of hand until, unbelievably, he kills his tormenter. But before that happened I was so exasperated by Carl and his situation that I skimmed ahead to see if anything would change. Discovering it did made me continue, but I stayed annoyed and frustrated by Carl the Idiot.Another thing Rendell did really well is portray the seriously delusional. Dermot is by far the most disturbing. His outward normality and false piety are a pretty good cover for a person with an outstanding ability to justify anything to himself. It would be gutsy if it weren’t so twisted. Lizzie is another character who is deluded beyond the bounds of her reality. She foists herself into a dead “friend’s” life and tries to live vicariously by taking over her now empty flat (and drinking her top shelf booze, wearing her designer clothes and eating her gourmet food). It takes a while for the main Carl/Dermot plot to catch up with Lizzie, but it eventually does in a typically neat and reasonably satisfying way. There’s a second and finally a third bout of blackmail, but a really inert and mild form so that the ultimate solution to Carl’s problem is quite weird. It’s a strange net that catches a lot of people in this novel, and while I’m not sorry for the time I spent with it, I don’t think it’s her best. Not a bad way to go out though.
    • 4/5
      What a creepy yet compelling book! Its horror lies in the anxiety one character, Carl, feels when he keeps committing misdeeds and getting caught in them, and blackmailed. Sadly this is probably the author's last book, as she died in 2015.
    • 3/5
      Ordinary people who are just a little "off". Murder, blackmail...it can't end well. A reliably enjoyable Ruth Rendell offering.
    • 5/5
      Ruth Rendell died earlier this year at the age of 85. So this stand-alone is the very last of her books, and of course as a long time avid reader of her books (there have been 60 of them in the last 50 years) I had to read it.While I wouldn't rate it in her best 10, it still demonstrates what a remarkable story teller she was, and how she was able to get into the mind of her principal characters.There is no doubt here who the "murderer" is, even though Carl caused his friend's death unwittingly. But it preys constantly on his mind and he becomes unable to work, to eat, to sleep. And Rendell asks the reader whether we would react in the same way. Or would we get it over and done with, and front up to the police with an admission that we were the source of the tablets that in all probability killed Stacey. Carl chooses not to and thus becomes the victim of Dermot, his upstairs tenant, who blackmails him by refusing to pay any rent. With no income, and unable to work, Carl sinks lower and lower, to the point where his girlfriend leaves him, and Dermot preys on his mind.The story just misses out on creating enough tension although there is a second murder, and also another attempted one.There is a second story thread running alongside the first: Lizzie Milsom, a friend of the dead girl Stacey, who moves into her flat, wears her clothes, and finally gets kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity. When Lizzie's father Tom gets a free bus card when he turns 60, he takes up a new hobby: travelling on buses. After being beaten up at one bus stop, he then has a nasty experience when a passenger gets off a bus, leaving his rucksack behind.So a good if not brilliant final outing for an author who has left an indelible mark on British crime fiction.For those who do not know, Ruth Rendell was the creator of Inspector Wexford, and also wrote under the pseudonym of Barbara Vine.
    • 4/5
      I have been a Ruth Rendell fan for all of my reading life, so of course I had to read her last book. Ruth Rendell passed away In May of this year, just shortly after her contemporary novelist P.D. James. It was a very sad year for these ladies legions of readers. I know that I for one wondered who would fill the void. In all honesty, I can't think of any one author that could even attempt to fill these two pairs of very big shoes. I don't think that this book is anywhere near Ms. Rendell's best, but she can out-write and out-plot any author with one had tied behind her back. No one can depict what seems to be a perfectly ordinary life unravel so convincingly. Carl Martin is that ordinary guy. He is a published young author who has inherited his father's house in a notable neighbourhood like Maida Vale. He doesn't think he needs the whole house for his own living space, so he decides to rent the upper floor. This would provide him with a steady income while he worked on his next book. But in true Ruth Rendell fashion, things begin to fall apart fairly quickly for Carl, and he effectively becomes almost a prisoner in his own house when his tenant decides to blackmail him for a small mistake in judgement that resulted in the death of Carl's friend. Carl soon makes choices that he never would have considered months earlier. We read and watch as Carl and his neat little life spiral out of control. Ms. Rendell leads us down a deep and dark hole, that, no matter how hard we try, we can't avoid. Dark and suspenseful, this book doesn't disappoint.
    • 2/5
      I had low expectations when I began Ruth Rendell's final novel and those expectations were met. I read for nostalgia's sake - Rendell is one of my favorite crime novelists and it's sad to know there will be no more, but I would have been better off rereading one of her earlier books. Which is not to say there was no point to reading Dark Corners. The book is written in her voice, with her ability to put together ordinary people and deeply disturbed individuals, as well as her skill at keeping a plot moving. On the other hand, this was clearly a book written by an elderly person about young people, and it's set in modern day, so that the characters all behaved oddly, as though they had abruptly time traveled and were still uncertain about the ways the world had changed. They would have fit beautifully in a book set fifty years earlier, but they all seemed more than a little bizarre in 2015. The plot was also weak, not in forward momentum, but in plausibility. The story revolves around Carl, a novelist who takes a renter for the top floor of his house as he works on his second book. Carl is an odd character; incurious about the world around him in a way that seems unlikely in a writer, with a passive personality, but that's nothing compared to the man he lets the flat to; Dermot is obsessed with religion, and a natural sneak. When he discovers something about Carl, he is quick to blackmail him, and Carl is quick to allow himself to be blackmailed, lacking the imagination necessary to find a solution. Then there's Lizzie, who is living on very little money in a terrible flat. When a friend is murdered, she moves in and uses her dead friend's clothes, make-up and food. She's frivolous and selfish, with a tendency to lie when convenient, and her straight-laced father dislikes her. But her frivolity and fibs will be punished in time. The plot is weak, and there is so much going on, from muggings to bombs to kidnapping to murder, all smashed together. Rendell at the height of her powers would have woven these disparate threads into something amazing, but this is not a plot that even the most credulous of readers can accept. If you adore Rendell's writing and have read all her other books, you'll be reading this anyway, but this isn't the book to begin with. She has written so many better books.
    • 4/5
      It truly saddens me to be writing a review of the very last novel written by Ruth Rendell, whom the literary world lost on May 2, 2015. I’ve been a longtime fan of Ms. Rendell’s work. She will be very much missed in the literary world and by this reader.As for her last book, it’s a perfect blend of suspense and tension. As always, Ms. Rendell built her storyline to make the most of each sentence, like a spider weaving each strand of silk in its web. It’s a page turner that will draw you into the dark story of Carl Martin, who rents part of his inherited home to a fellow who blackmails him and how Carl’s life begins to unravel. Ms. Rendell is a master of psychological suspense and has created a memorable character in Carl Martin and you’ll cringe as you watch him sink deeper and deeper into unstable chaos. While we can’t always agree with Carl’s actions, it’s hard not to empathize with him. I’d prefer not to say too much about the storyline and let Ms. Rendell weave her own magic in her readers’ minds.If you aren’t familiar with Ruth Rendell’s work, then this last book of hers will open up much wonderful reading time ahead for you, as she wrote over 60 novels, most under her own name but also some under her pseudonym, Barbara Vine. Her sharp insight into the human mind and her wry humor make her books must reads. I’ve heard her work described as “cozy mysteries” but I don’t see that at all. Most of her work, including this one, gives me chills and while they may not be excessively gory, they’re certainly not cozy. Recommended.This book was given to me by the publisher through Edelweiss in return for an honest review.