The Secret House Of Death: a compelling psychological thriller from the award-winning queen of crime, Ruth Rendell

Very dated written in the 60s

Recently Sophie Hannah, an author I admire greatly, wrote a piece for the Guardian in which she gave her top ten twists in fiction novels. She was not talking about the current trend for screaming "WITH A TWIST YOU WON'T SEE COMING" on anything and everything that could vaguely be called psychological thriller, those are not twists but rather unexpected resolutions or, it has to be said most of the time, simply resolutions. No she was talking about those subtle lies woven into a seemingly truthful narrative that either, at some point in the book, make you shout out loud or those novels that overall twist up your perception of things.I'm a sucker for a good literary twist whether that be from an entire story when you think about it or that one drop jaw moment within a story - and despite outward publicity shrieks from novels and publishers who are desperate to find the next Gone Girl, the clever literary twist is very very rare. I find one in about every 300-400 books I read and even some of those are on the cusp, a promise rather than an execution. So I was very interested in Ms Hannah's list (in which I should be clear she gives nothing away of any value thus spoiling the books, no she is the queen of subtle too) I was pleasantly surprised to find three novels on there that I had not read - so immediately purchased all of those, this being one of them. Of "The Secret House Of Death" Ms Hannah stated that the murder itself is the twist but you won't know what I mean so you'll just have to read it. I have. And she's right. You won't know what it means either so I guess....This is a classic version of domestic noir - marriages going wrong, a double death, what the neighbours saw, what people thought about those involved and it is also an absolutely fascinating relationship saga, with some memorable characters and that subtle execution of plot that meant it found itself on what I now fondly refer to as Sophie's "Twist List"It is highly readable, very intriguing and indeed earns its place on the list of those books that I have taken something different away from than I expected in the first place. I'm now looking forward to reading the other two I have somehow, in all the books I read, missed out on.Recommended.

The story was average - a bit slow in places with nothing to distinguish it many others in the genre. However, the kindle edition is really badly formatted with lots of typos. I found it particularly irritating that there were no line breaks to indicate the frequent changes of scene within a chapter. It was very disconcerting to move from one sentence to the next only to discover that we been transported from one scene and POV to another. Come on Amazon, this is really not good enough!

Not one of her best. The characters are unconvincing and I did feel that to a modern reader some of the social mores of the time were quite jarring and a distraction from the plot. Obviously this is not a fault of the book as in the 1960s these things would have been quite normal. The biggest problem was the terrible kindle edition. I was completely confused at times as there was no break when setting and pov changed. Also several typos. Not good enough.

Story is OK but not particularly gripping. Characters pretty unbelievable and weird in their interactions with others.Some dreadfully non-PC stuff - "What woman doesn't like being whistled at?"; a comment implying that a pub's policy of refusing to serve a lone woman was perfectly acceptable; women expected to keep the house while the men go out to work..... Perhaps the author thought this was still the 19th century.Kindle edition badly formatted - as someone else has noted, lack of line breaks between scenes means that you think you're in one POV, only to be jolted into another.My first RR - think it'll be my last.

This was written a long time ago and I viewed it as a kind of time capsule. Has an interesting and convoluted plot too. As usual with Ruth Rendell (even then) the characters are well developed and depicted in a "warts and all" type of way.

Very good book. Ruth Rendell is a master of the detective story.

Absolutely gripping. Do not read before bedtime as you will want to finish it and will go to bed far too late! Simple plot that pulls you in.