A Sight for Sore Eyes (novel)

A Sight for Sore Eyes
	First edition (UK)
Author	Ruth Rendell
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Crime / Mystery novel
Publisher	Hutchinson (UK); Crown (US); Doubleday (Canada)
Publication date	September, 1998
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback)
ISBN	0-09-180101-X
OCLC	60175720

A Sight For Sore Eyes is a psychological thriller by British crime-writer Ruth Rendell.

Synopsis[]

A Sight for Sore Eyes tells three stories of very different people, whose lives converge with horrifying consequences.

Teddy is raised by a neglectful family with little concern for his welfare or emotional development, so that he grows into a reclusive young man without compassion or empathy. Fonder of objects than people, he becomes a talented carpenter who enjoys making beautiful things to contrast with the ugliness he sees around him.

Francine is a beautiful young woman who was traumatised in her childhood by the murder of her mother. After the incident, her father got remarried to a psychotherapist, who promises Francine that she will do anything to keep her out of harm's way. True to her word, she keeps such a close eye on Francine that it reaches overprotection to the point of obsession.

Teddy meets Francine by chance and falls for her flawless beauty and physical perfection. He presents to her, in her eyes, an opportunity for freedom at last.

Meanwhile, Harriet is a woman who has used her looks to get ahead and found herself in a loveless marriage to a rich older man. She assuages her loneliness by having affairs with handymen whom she brings to her house. She considers herself an extremely beautiful middle-aged woman and believes that she does not look a day over 25. She is portrayed as delusional, jealous and self-absorbed to the point of obsession.

External links[]

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v t Ruth Rendell
Inspector Wexford novels	From Doon with Death A New Lease of Death Wolf to the Slaughter The Best Man to Die A Guilty Thing Surprised No More Dying Then Murder Being Once Done Some Lie and Some Die Shake Hands Forever A Sleeping Life Put on By Cunning The Speaker of Mandarin An Unkindness of Ravens The Veiled One Kissing the Gunner's Daughter Simisola Road Rage Harm Done The Babes in the Wood End in Tears Not in the Flesh The Monster in the Box The Vault No Man's Nightingale
Stand-alone novels	To Fear a Painted Devil Vanity Dies Hard The Secret House of Death One Across, Two Down The Face of Trespass A Demon in My View A Judgement in Stone Make Death Love Me The Lake of Darkness Master of the Moor The Killing Doll The Tree of Hands Live Flesh Heartstones Talking to Strange Men The Bridesmaid Going Wrong The Crocodile Bird The Keys to the Street A Sight for Sore Eyes Adam and Eve and Pinch Me The Rottweiler Thirteen Steps Down The Thief The Water's Lovely Portobello Tigerlily's Orchids The Saint Zita Society The Girl Next Door Dark Corners
As Barbara Vine	A Dark-Adapted Eye A Fatal Inversion The House of Stairs Gallowglass King Solomon's Carpet Asta's Book No Night is Too Long The Brimstone Wedding The Chimney Sweeper's Boy Grasshopper The Blood Doctor The Minotaur The Birthday Present The Child's Child
Short story collections	The Fallen Curtain Means of Evil The Fever Tree The New Girlfriend The Copper Peacock Blood Lines Piranha to Scurfy A Spot of Folly
TV series	The Ruth Rendell Mysteries The Barbara Vine Mysteries