The Girl Next Door: A Novel

Marc Notes: Mystery novel about friendship, love, and aging. Synopsis: In the wanting months of the second World War, a group of children discover an earthen tunnel in their neighborhood. Throughout the summer of 1944--until one father forbids it--the subterranean space becomes their secret garden, where the friends play games and tell stories. Six decades later, beneath a house on the same land, construction workers uncover a tin box containing two skeletal hands, one male and one female. As the discovery makes national news, the friends come together once again, to recall their days in the tunnel for the detective investigating the case. Is the truth buried among these aging friends and memories? This impromptu reunion causes long-simmering feelings to bubble to the surface. Mild-mannered Alan, stuck in a passionless marriage, begins flirting with Daphne, a glamorous widow who was once his teenage sweetheart. Michael, lonely after the death of his wife, considers contacting his estranged father, who sent Michael to live with an aunt after his mother vanished in 1944. Lewis begins remembering details about his Uncle James, an army private who once accompanied the Children into the tunnels, and who later disappeared. In THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, Rendell brilliantly shatters our assumptions about age, showing that the choices people make--and the emotions behind them--remain as potent in late life as they were in youth--; Provided by publisher. Publisher Marketing: INCLUDES AN EXCERPT OF RENDELL'S FINAL NOVEL, "DARK CORNERS" From crime legend Ruth Rendell, a psychologically intriguing novel about an old murder that sends shockwaves across a group of astonishingly carnal and appetiteful elderly friends: "Refined, probing, and intelligent...never less than a pleasure" ("USA TODAY"). In the waning months of the second World War, a group of children discover a tunnel in their neighborhood outside London. For that summer of 1944, the subterranean space becomes their "secret garden," where the friends play games, tell their fortunes, and perform for each other. Six decades later, construction workers make a grisly discovery beneath a house on the same land: a tin box containing two skeletal hands, one male and one female. As the hands make national news, the friends come together once again, to recall their long ago days for a detective. Then the police investigation sputters, and the threads holding their friendship together begin to unravel. Is the truth buried amid the tangled relationships of these aging men and women and their memories? Will it emerge before it's too late? Stephen King says, "no one surpasses Ruth Rendell when it comes to stories of obsession, instability, and malignant coincidence." In "The Girl Next Door"--"yet another gem" ("The Washington Post")--Rendell brilliantly shows that the choices people make, and the emotions behind them, remain as potent in late life as they were in youth. "Rendell's wit, always mordant, has never been sharper than when she skewers patronizing assumptions about the elderly" ("Chicago Tribune"). Review Citations: Booklist 09/01/2014 pg. 51 (EAN 9781476784335, Open Ebook) - *Starred Review Library Journal Prepub Alert 06/01/2014 pg. 70 (EAN 9781476784328, Hardcover) Publishers Weekly 08/18/2014 (EAN 9781476784328, Hardcover) Library Journal 09/01/2014 pg. 98 (EAN 9781476784328, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Booklist 09/01/2014 pg. 51 (EAN 9781476784328, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Kirkus Reviews 10/01/2014 (EAN 9781476784328, Hardcover) New York Times Book Review 11/02/2014 pg. 29 (EAN 9781476784328, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Rendell, Ruth 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 Writ-ers' 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.