The Girl Next Door (Rendell novel)

First edition (publ. Hutchinson)

The Girl Next Door is a novel by British crime author Ruth Rendell which is published in 2014. It was the last of her novels published in her lifetime.^[1]

Plot and characters[]

During World War II, a group of children in Loughton, Essex, United Kingdom, which is where Rendell herself grew up, play in tunnels (in reality, the foundations of an uncompleted house) they discovered under a hill. In the present day they are reunited after the discovery of two hands in a tin box when the tunnels are dug up for construction work.^[2] The novel deals frankly with changes and interrelationships of the characters and social changes generally, over seven decades.

Critical reception[]

In a review in The Observer, it was noted that instead of focusing on the crime, the novel dealt with the lives of the now elderly people in the present.^[3]

In Marilyn Stasio's review for The New York Times, the novel's effective use of a split time frame was noted.^[4]

References[]

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