Thirteen Steps Down

By Ruth Rendell

From the multi-award-winning author of The Babes in the Wood and The Rottweiler, a chilling new novel about obsession, superstition, and violence, set in Rendell’s darkly atmospheric London.

Mix Cellini (which he pronounces with an ‘S’ rather than a ‘C’) is superstitious about the number 13. In musty old St. Blaise House, where he is the lodger, there are thirteen steps down to the landing
below his rooms, which he keeps spick and span. His elderly landlady, Gwendolen Chawcer, was born in St. Blaise House, and lives her life almost exclusively through her library of books, so cannot see the decay and neglect around her.

The Notting Hill neighbourhood has changed radically over the last fifty years, and 10 Rillington Place, where the notorious John Christie committed a series of foul murders, has been torn down.

Mix is obsessed with the life of Christie and his small library is composed entirely of books on the subject. He has also developed a passion for a beautiful model who lives nearby — a woman who would not look at him twice.

Both landlady and lodger inhabit weird worlds of their own. But when reality intrudes into Mix’s life, a long pent-up violence explodes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 23, 2010
• ISBN: 9780385673181

Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell (1930–2015) won three Edgar Awards, the highest accolade from Mystery Writers of America, as well as four Gold Daggers and a Diamond Dagger for outstanding contribution to the genre from England’s prestigious Crime Writ­ers’ Association. Her remarkable career spanned a half century, with more than sixty books published. A member of the House of Lords, she was one of the great literary figures of our time.

Reviews for Thirteen Steps Down

[belles007-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Holy cow! Ruth Rendell came up with some CRAZY characters in this book. I had a lot of fun reading this one.

[fromthecomfychair · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great audiobook, very convincing narrator. Thought it ended rather suddenly, though.

[featherbear · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Something like the offspring of Simenon & late Dickens. Gwendolen Chawcer modeled on Miss Havisham? I'm a little too much like her psychologically. Inhabiting the mind of Mix Cellini is not a pleasant experience. Nerissa Nash-- interesting too have a not too bright and conventionally shallow character also decent and kind (maybe emphasized to contrast with the object of her passion). Rendell does not give much psychological depth to Olive Fordyce (Nerissa's great-aunt), Queenie Winthrop, or Kayleigh Rivers, though if there is any mystery it's their persistence, going out of their way, in caring for others who either dislike them (Olive & Queenie vis a vis Gwendolen) or whom they barely know (Kayleigh for Daniela Kovic). The cat Otto also seems Dickensian (Mix seems more Simenonish), at least the Dickens with supernatural leanings, as is the fortune teller Shoshanna. And the Dickensian coincidence of Olive being G.'s friend and Nerissa's great aunt, leading to the meeting with Cellini. One odd note: when Olive, her niece Hazel Akwaa,(Nerissa's mother) & Nerissa take Gwendolen back to her house, Rendell doesn't have G. note Nerissa's mixed race (mentally or out loud), which seems uncharacteristic. Favorite funny: G. deciding she wasn't in the mood for reading something as taxing as Darwin, and begins reading the Golden Bowl.

[ant.harrison · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A return to form for Ruth Rendell with this dark and claustrophobic tale set in her beloved London. Taking some of her familiar themes - obsession, mistaken identity, mental instability and a crime committed in the past, Rendell expertly re-works them to produce a rich and compelling psychological mystery. She has often said that one of her primary goals as a novelist is to produce well-plotted and exciting fiction, and this she certainly does.

© Koplowitz 2012

[edecklund · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Inspector Wexford doesn't appear in this book which takes place in a multiracial London neighborhood. Characters include a trio of old ladies, a black supermodel, a fortunetelling fitness center owner, and recent immigrants and second generation Britishers from Africa, India, Bosnia, Iraq, and maybe other places I've forgotten.Their quirky behavior is sometimes amusing or quaintly odd but that can't obscure the fact that this is still a story of obsession and murder.

[dw0rd_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Inspector Wexford doesn't appear in this book which takes place in a multiracial London neighborhood. Characters include a trio of old ladies, a black supermodel, a fortunetelling fitness center owner, and recent immigrants and second generation Britishers from Africa, India, Bosnia, Iraq, and maybe other places I've forgotten.Their quirky behavior is sometimes amusing or quaintly odd but that can't obscure the fact that this is still a story of obsession and murder.

[kayceel_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mix, superstitious about the number thirteen, "accidentally" kills a woman, and falls deeper into his own fantasy life as he tries to cover things up. Interesting how all of the characters, Mix, his elderly recluse landlady Gwendolyn, and Narissa herself, have detailed fantasy lives, and all delude themselves in some way. Set in London, and I, of course, loved the accents.

[nyiper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The mixture of events and characters is wonderful as they weave back and forth to form an intricate fabric of happenings. It was almost like building a house of cards that falls apart in a little series of endings. Ruth Rendell writes absorbing thrillers that move right along---- she knows exactly where she is going as she writes toward the end she has in mind, pulling readers right along, providing little surprises with what happens next every time.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a story of obsession and murder and how far people will go to protect a favourite and prized image and idea of themselves.Mix Callini is living in Gwendolen Chawcer's house, mostly because it's close to 10 Rillington Place wheree John Christie committed a series of murders. He's also infatuated with Nerissa Nash, a model who lives nearby and would do anything to get closer to her.Gwendolyn is a woman who has been left behind by life and now lives in books, trying to hold on to the values of her youth in the face of modern England.And on the face of it it could have been a very good book, but it falls a bit flat and sometimes you're just waiting for something to happen so when it does it's rather ho-hum.Diverting but not her best.

[bookmarque · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As usual, the look into the demented mind was riveting and her prose and plot flawless and interesting. This woman knows how to build suspense. True suspense means I have to be suspended; waiting for the next tidbit. It’s the anticipation of the whole story after haven been given a clue is what drives her novels. I can’t think of anyone else whom does it better.