13 Steps Down

Mix Cellini has just moved into a flat in a decaying house in Nottinghill, where he plans to pursue his two abiding passions--supermodel Nerissa Nash, whom he worships from afar, and the life of serial killer Reggie Christie, hanged fifty years earlier for murdering at least eight women. Gwendolen Chawcer, Mix’s eighty-year-old landlady, has few interests besides her old books and her new tenant. But she does have an intriguing connection to Christie. And when reality intrudes into Mix’s life, he turns to Christie for inspiration and a long pent-up violence explodes. Intricately plotted and brilliantly written, 13 Steps Down enters the minds of these disparate people as they move inexorably toward its breathtaking conclusion.

Ruth Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, was the author of many thrillers and murder mysteries. She was the winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award and also the recipient of three Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America and four Gold Daggers from Great Britain’s Crime Writers Association. In 1997, she was named a life peer in the House of Lords. Rendell also wrote mysteries under the name of Barbara Vine, of which A Dark-Adapted Eye is the most famous. She died in 2015. View titles by Ruth Rendell
"Brilliant. . . . Wonderful. . . . Remarkable. . . . A triumph. . . . Its final denouement [is] a miracle of irony and compassion." --The Boston Globe" Dazzling. . . . Cool, dark, intricately plotted. . . . At once creepy, incredibly funny, and oddly moving. Grade: A." --Entertainment Weekly"Brilliant. . . . Chilling. . . . A profoundly unnerving psychological suspense novel . . . that demonstrates Rendell's cunning artistry. . . . We'll never forget our visit to St. Blaise House." --The New York Times Book Review"Rendell, the mistress of foreboding . . . twists to a high pitch, so that you keep on turning the pages, alternately shuddering and smiling. . . . One of the top crime novels of the year." --The Rocky Mountain News

About

Mix Cellini has just moved into a flat in a decaying house in Nottinghill, where he plans to pursue his two abiding passions--supermodel Nerissa Nash, whom he worships from afar, and the life of serial killer Reggie Christie, hanged fifty years earlier for murdering at least eight women. Gwendolen Chawcer, Mix’s eighty-year-old landlady, has few interests besides her old books and her new tenant. But she does have an intriguing connection to Christie. And when reality intrudes into Mix’s life, he turns to Christie for inspiration and a long pent-up violence explodes. Intricately plotted and brilliantly written, 13 Steps Down enters the minds of these disparate people as they move inexorably toward its breathtaking conclusion.

Author

Ruth Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, was the author of many thrillers and murder mysteries. She was the winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award and also the recipient of three Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America and four Gold Daggers from Great Britain’s Crime Writers Association. In 1997, she was named a life peer in the House of Lords. Rendell also wrote mysteries under the name of Barbara Vine, of which A Dark-Adapted Eye is the most famous. She died in 2015. View titles by Ruth Rendell

Praise

"Brilliant. . . . Wonderful. . . . Remarkable. . . . A triumph. . . . Its final denouement [is] a miracle of irony and compassion." --The Boston Globe" Dazzling. . . . Cool, dark, intricately plotted. . . . At once creepy, incredibly funny, and oddly moving. Grade: A." --Entertainment Weekly"Brilliant. . . . Chilling. . . . A profoundly unnerving psychological suspense novel . . . that demonstrates Rendell's cunning artistry. . . . We'll never forget our visit to St. Blaise House." --The New York Times Book Review"Rendell, the mistress of foreboding . . . twists to a high pitch, so that you keep on turning the pages, alternately shuddering and smiling. . . . One of the top crime novels of the year." --The Rocky Mountain News