Master of the Moor: A Novel

By Ruth Rendell

Stephen Whalby loves to walk the moor. He considers it his, although he and his young wife Lyn are merely tenants in a flat nearby. But the senseless and frightening murder of a young woman invades Stephen's sense of privacy and pollutes his beloved moor with suspicion and dread. And then a second murder captures his imagination in an unpredictable and fascinating way . . .

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9780307829511

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 Master of the Moor

[lucybrown_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A decent enough mystery, though not in the manner of the detective or police procedural type. More of E. A. Poe dark and sinister getting into the minds of not quite balanced folk.

[yhgail · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think it,s well written with some interesting psychological twists. I rated it 3 instead of 4 just that it,s more of a 3 in terms of books that I like.

[smik_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a Ruth Rendell stand-alone published in 1982, before she began publishing this style of book under the pseudonym of Barbara Vine.Like his grandfather before him, Stephen Walby has an obsession with Vangmoor. It came as a surprise to me that Stephen is a relatively young man, only in his early twenties. I thought Rendell made him seem much older than he is. He also seems to have the knack of turning up in the wrong place at the wrong time, eventually giving the police no alternative to taking him in for questioning, regarding him as a "person of interest" in the Vangmoor murder cases.The story takes a savage twist about half way through, when Stephen reacts violently upon finding out that his wife has been having an affair. Is Stephen Walby a dormant psychotic? His comfortable world is constantly under challenge. The strings that anchor Stephen to reality are snapped when a childhood friend reappears.And just when the reader thinks they have it all worked out, the book takes another twist, one that you could not have predicted, as the Master of the Moor claims his final victim.Another of the characteristics of these early Rendell stand-alones, by comparison with the Wexford series, is that they are relatively short books. According to Amazon, it is only 218 pages long. For example THE VAULT, one of the later Wexfords, is more than 60 pages longer, as are many of her later books.

[michigantrumpet_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A pleasant way to spend an evening. Rendel does a good job portraying unsympathetic characters and keeping one reading.

[karav_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love this book. Completely creepy.