The killing doll
Ratings2
Average rating4
15
Ratings2
Average rating4
An intense and disturbing novel from the UK's most loved crime writerThe winter before he was sixteen, Pup sold his soul to the devil. He wasn't quite sure what he was going to get in exchange. For the time being, all he asked for was to be happy, and to grow a bit taller. Even though she was older than Pup, Dolly was always in awe of her brother. More and more, she wanted to believe that he had occult powers and could do anything. Magic could remove the birthmark from her face and make her normal. Magic could kill their wicked stepmother, Myra. Pup laughs when Dolly shows him an effigy of Myra: a rag doll, about fifteen inches high, with knitted nylon skin and rust-coloured wool hair. Dolly sticks it full of pins. Myra dies. With dazzling virtuosity Ruth Rendell explores a haunted world of obsession, delusions and murderous fantasy.
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The audiobook of this got me through a drive from Connecticut to Maryland. Not my favorite Rendell but definitely one of most disturbing and weird. A lonely woman with steadily worsening psychosis dives into an obsession with black magic while Rendellian complications stew on her block of flats. Much like Live Flesh this book succeeded magnificently at replicating the interior of the head of an individual with mental illness. Reminded me of Highsmith's Edith's Diary.
