Today I finished reading Ruth Rendell’s A Judgment in Stone for the sixth time. Or the seventh, I’ve lost track. People say “genre literature”, well, this is definitely genre, and it’s outstanding. It’s very masterfully done, not a word out of place. The characters are completely alive. Until they are dead, that is, because this is a murder thriller written in the style of true crime.
I keep re-reading A Judgment in Stone because the descriptions of the British country life in the 1970s are mesmerizing, and also because th greatest mystery in the novel is how it’s possible to create something so good without striking a single false note.
The novel is about an illiterate woman who is desperate to hide her incapacity to read. It was written in a less sensitive era, so Rendell felt no need to slobber about “social issues.” It’s a refreshingly unsentimental book that never tries to preach at the readers. Ans it’s so well-written. Please give yourself some joy and read it.
Clarissa's Blog 
That is in my pile of books to read. I will take this post as a sign that I should move it to the top and read it next.
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This book will be particularly enjoyable for somebody with a pile of books he wants to read. :-))
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