{"product_id":"portobello-9780099538639","title":"Portobello","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eRuth Rendell was an exceptional crime writer, and will be remembered as a legend in her own lifetime. Her groundbreaking debut novel, \u003ci\u003eFrom Doon With Death\u003c\/i\u003e, was first published in 1964 and introduced the reader to her enduring and popular detective, Inspector Reginald Wexford, who went on to feature in twenty-four of her subsequent novels.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith worldwide sales of approximately 20 million copies, Rendell was a regular \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller. Her sixty bestselling novels include police procedurals, some of which have been successfully adapted for TV, stand-alone psychological mysteries, and a third strand of crime novels under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Very much abreast of her times, the Wexford books in particular often engaged with social or political issues close to her heart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRendell won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with \u003ci\u003eA Demon in My View,\u003c\/i\u003e a Gold Dagger award for\u003ci\u003e Live Flesh\u003c\/i\u003e in 1986, and the \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e Literary Award in 1990. In 2013 she was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuth Rendell died in May 2015. Her final novel, \u003ci\u003eDark Corners\u003c\/i\u003e, was published in October 2015.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith this captivating novel, the reigning queen of crime fiction establishes that an unsolved murder is not a necessary ingredient of a suspense-filled mystery ... Her deft sculpturing of characters' idiosyncratic obsessions and foibles betrays a shrewdness of perception of which even the absent Wexford would be proud. * Time Out *\u003cbr\u003eA roundabout of characters is set whirling along in an irresistibly readable, tragi-comic carnival. Dr Johnson's dictum could be amended here: the reader who is tired of Ruth Rendell's novel of London is tired of life * Independent *\u003cbr\u003eImpossible to put down ... Rendell, at her most sardonic here, may view all her characters as creatures who live under stones but it is her sense of place that counts. She makes you smell the excitement and desperation. \u003ci\u003ePortobello\u003c\/i\u003e is as brilliant as anything she has ever written * Evening Standard *\u003cbr\u003eRuth Rendell is marvellous at psychological tension ... Rendell is too clever and too accomplished to serve up the expected. She supplies a satisfying, rather low-key ending in which she knits all the threads together with a casual flourish that shows veteran expertise * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eA thriller steeped in psychological intrigue ... Rendell's prose style is as succinct and accessible as ever * Daily Mirror *","brand":"Cornerstone","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51017525166423,"sku":"9780099538639","price":14.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780099538639.jpg?v=1750773831","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/portobello-9780099538639","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}