Tag Archives: psychological thriller

The House by the Sea by Jon Godden

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The House by the Sea by Jon Godden was first published by Michael Joseph in 1947, according to the front of my copy of the book but Wiki claims it was published in 1948.

The setting is Cornwall towards the end of World War 2. Edwina is a 41 year old spinster and she has just bought a house in rural Cornwall which stands on its own with the nearest neighbour being a farmhouse a few miles away. Edwina has been able to buy the house with money left to her when her father died. It’s a dream for her, she will be able to escape from London, and also her bossy and really abusive so-called friend Madge. Edwina is thrilled to be in her own place with just her black spaniel for company, but come the evening and a storm she’s feeling very nervous, it sounds like Madge has been gaslighting her for fifteen years and telling her that she is too nervous to live alone.

When a man comes to the door looking for shelter from the rain, Edwina doesn’t really have any choice, he’s in and she’s treating him like a guest although she knows there’s something dodgy about him. He takes on the type of role that Madge had had in her relationship. It turns out that he’s an American, a deserter from the army,  he’s in big trouble – and so is Edwina.

Although this is a well-written book I found it to be too uncomfortable a read, I suppose it could be called a psychological thriller, but the few characters in the book were all quite unpleasant which is always a problem for me.

 

The Spider-Orchid by Celia Fremlin

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The Spider-Orchid by Celia Fremlin was first published in 1977. I suppose that means it’s vintage crime – astonishingly!

This one is I suppose a psychological thriller, that means that for me it was an uncomfortable read, it’s certainly not cosy crime. Also it takes a very long time for an actual crime to take place, despite all that, it’s a very good read – at the end anyway.

Adrian has recently been divorced from his wife Peggy after she declared that she couldn’t stand it any longer. What she couldn’t stand was Adrian’s long term affair with a woman called Rita. Adrian is amazed as he didn’t even realise that Peggy had been aware of his affair, despite him flaunting Rita around the local neighbourhood and even in front of friends and work colleagues.

Living in a rented flat on his own is ideal for Adrian, with just a few visits from Rita a week, he’s happier living on his own, but Sundays are sacrosanct, that’s when his daughter spends the day with him. When Rita decides to move in Adrian is not at all happy, but he only has himself to blame as he has been agreeing with Rita for years that it would be wonderful if they could be together all the time. He’s aghast, especially when it transpires that Rita is very much against the existence of Amelia his daughter.

Ultimately I enjoyed this one because for me the ending went in the right direction, but for a lot of the time the plot was a bit of a worry!

It’s a quick read at just 176 pages.

 

 

Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell

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Dark Corners by Ruth Rendell is her last book, just published recently, 2015. I thought that maybe as it had been written not long before she died and she had been getting on in years this book might have been a disappointment, but it was a cracker. I was lucky to be able to sit down today and read all 279 pages of it, just breaking off from reading to eat and drink.

I don’t want to say too much about it really. Carl Martin is a young author who has just had his first book published. His parents were divorced and his father had died recently, leaving his house to Carl. It’s in a very expensive part of London. But if Carl lets out the top half of the house he will be able to afford to live from the rent it brings in, and continue to write full time on his next novel.

Carl has no idea how to go about choosing a tenant and he decides just to accept the first man in the queue as his tenant, despite not really liking the look of him much. That’s Carl’s first mistake which all his subsequent troubles stem from.

Dark Corners could never be described as a cozy crime book. It’s a psychological thriller, full of suspense and anything but a relaxing read, but a definite page turner. What a pity there’ll be no more from Ruth Rendell.

I was quite amazed to see this one sitting on the new books shelf in one of our at risk of closure libraries, because I thought there would have been a long list of people who had reserved it, I must have just got there at the right time as I see that someone has reserved it now, which is why I decided to get on with reading it in one day. Well the weather has been awful, it has rained for days, so dreich that a lamp is needed on at noon. Reading this book fairly brightened up my day though.

There’s a very short interview with Rendell before the book begins:

But why the fascination with psychopaths?…..

“Well.” Rendell says in her precise voice. “I do empathise with people who are driven by dreadful impulses. I think to be driven to want to kill must be such a terrible burden. I try, and I think I succeed, in making my readers feel pity for my psychopaths, because I do.”

Sunday Telegraph magazine, 10th April 2005.

A Suspension of Mercy by Patricia Highsmith

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A Suspension of Mercy by Patricia Highsmith was published way back in 1965, but it was in the 1970s that I discovered her and then went on a Highsmith binge, recommended to other people that they should read her books, and then for some reason didn’t keep up with her books myself in subsequent years.

So this was a recent library choice for me, I’m fairly sure that I didn’t read this one in the 1970s. It has been republished as a Virago Modern Classic.

Sydney Bartleby is a young American writer and he is living with his wife Alicia in the wilds of rural Suffolk. Sydney has a very vivid imagination and I suppose he is the writer’s equivalent of a method actor as he feels the need to act out one of his plots to see how he will feel, he wants to get the emotions correct as he digs a grave in a remote patch of countryside.

At times I was in two minds as to whether Alicia had actually been murdered by him or not, so when Alicia does disappear from their cottage, supposedly having gone to visit her parents but never arrived there, things look very bad for Sydney indeed. All the clues point to him having done her in and everyone is sure he is guilty, including the police.

This was a cracker of a book, really full of suspense. Why oh why have I left it getting on for 40 years since I read a Patricia Highsmith book?!

Do you have a favourite book by her which you can recommend me to read next?