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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 7, No. 8 |
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reviews the new Ruth Rendell mystery 13 STEPS DOWN |
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He's a killer who idolizes
an infamous serial killer
of TheColumnists.com
Ruth Rendell could have made a marvelous living as a stage hypnotist. I say that because I'm usually mesmerized as soon as I open one of her books. And the hypnotic spell usually lasts as long as the book does, too.
If anyone, at this late date, needs any reminder that Rendell is just about the greatest living mystery writer, all I can say is go buy a copy of "13 Steps Down" (Crown, $25), her latest novel to reach these shores. The moment I picked it up and started to read page one, it was as if a cultured English voice slowly intoned, "Read this now! Do not stop until you are done!" Which is what I did. Fortunately, I was in bed at the time. It could have turned into a nasty scene if I'd been standing in a bookstore, trying to keep the proprietor from locking the doors until I'd stopped reading.
This book is about a chap named Mix Cellini. He doesn't amount to much as contemporary Englishmen go. He works as a repairman of exercise equipment for one of those "fitness" outfits that sells such machinery to spas, gyms and individuals. He's a bachelor, living alone in an upper apartment in a very old house in London, not far from 10 Rillington Place, the fabled address of Reginald Christie, one of England's legendary serial murderers.
To Cellini's great displeasure, Christie's infamous house was torn down long ago. no doubt because nobody particularly wanted to live in a place where the corpses of women were found under the floorboards, sealed inside the walls and buried all over the garden. That makes Cellini unhappy because he idolizes Christie and, in fact, reads everything ever written about him, knows every frame of the Richard Attenborough film "10 Rillington Place" and loves visiting the homes of Christie's many female victims.
As you might imagine, a man with this sort of obsession is not likely to be the protagonist in a love story. But then you may not know Ruth Rendell's propensity for weirdness as much as I do.
In fact, Cellini is head over heels in love with a beautiful black fashion model named Nerissa Nash. He wouldn't care for the term "stalking," so let's just say Cellini kind of follows her around on the off chance they might meet and exchange a few words. Nerissa doesn't know this, of course, but Cellini plans to marry her and live comfortably with her soon, helping her spend some of her extravagant modelling fees.
When Nerissa one day goes into a spa, Cellini sees a prime opportunity to become better acquainted with her. He makes a deal with the spa to repair their equipment and never gets around to telling his employer about this new contract. That's where he meets Danila, a shy young girl from Bosnia who's the receptionist there. He figures having a relationship with her will give him access to lots of private information about Nerissa. And so on.
In his heart of hearts, Cellini believes he absolutely must become famous. In this celebrity-obsessed world, it seems the only true marker of success. He, for instance, believes Christie was a success because he became so world famous. Sure, they hanged Christie for all those murders, but Cellini figures that's the price a guy sometimes has to pay for fame.
If you think you may know where this is heading, you are right. Cellini does commit a murder. That's when he begins to see "Reggie's ghost" in the dark corridors leading to Cellini's apartment. Is Christie trying to give him advice on body disposal or, worst case scenario, trying to tell him he's a blundering klutz?
There's also another dreadful nuisance getting in the way of Cellini's path to fame: Gwendolen Chawcer, his meddling old spinster landlady. He puts up with her because she once met Reggie Christie--Cellini believes she went to him for an abortion--which makes her a sort of undiscovered celebrity. But she's always griping about the funny smells coming from the floorboards upstairs and threatening to have somebody in to check up on it.
You don't have to slip too far into "13
Steps Down" to realize that Rendell is absolutely the best
there is at creating fleshed-out characters that seem destined
to run into each other somehow. If Cellini lives entirely in
his own fantasies, so do Gwendolen and Nerissa.
For instance, the old lady is still passionately in love with
a doctor who treated her more than 50 years earlier. When she
reads that his wife has died, she naturally figures he's now
free and, even though he's now 83, soon will be coming for her.
As for Nerissa, she's falling in love with a former neighbor boy who's matured into a handsome and successful man. However, he somehow seems to be the only man in metropolitan London who's able of resisting her charms. Her fantasies involve her future with him--but then there's this stalker character who's started to turn up at the most awkward of times.
This is a fascinating story, told so well by Rendell that you'll be drawn into the bizarre world of her characters before you even know it.
And here's a little oddity: Rendell dedicated this book "with affection and admiration" to her friend and fellow "queen of mystery" in England, novelist P.D. James. Ironically, James' latest book at the time Rendell first published "13 Steps Down" in England was "The Murder Room," a mystery in which the setting was a museum with a room celebrating some of England's most infamous serial killers.
Make of that what you will, but be sure to read "13 Steps Down" as soon as you can. It's a gem.
©2006 by Ron Miller.
The book cover reproduction is courtesy of Crown Books. This
column first posted Feb. 6, 2006.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
writes about television mysteries for MYSTERY SCENE magazine.
You can comment on this column online. Please address your message to either "The Editors" or Ron Miller. To send an email, click here and don't forget to mention Ron's name: talkback@thecolumnists.com
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