The Keys to the Street

by Ruth Rendell

Overview

Lush green by day, darkly sinister by night, Regent's Park hosts an underworld of drug ushers and thugs, of London's homeless and the unseen killer who is impaling them, one by one, on the ornate railings that encircle the park.

Theirs is a world light years away from Mary Jago's elegant new home and museum job across the park. Mary, in an uncharacteristic act of self-assertion, has left her abusive boyfriend and, in an act of humanity, has donated her bone marrow to a stranger. She then meets the fragile young man whose life she saved--Leo, flesh of her flesh, bone of her bone, a twin soul--and becomes deeply involved with him.

But Mary's boldness has its price. Among the park's shattered hopes and new dreams, something dark and deadly waits for her...eager to rob her of something more precious than life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307801142
Publisher:	Crown Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/07/2011
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ruth Rendell is the recipient of several awards, including three Edgars and four Gold Daggers from the UK’s Crime Writers’ Association. Simisola, Blood Lines, Keys to the Street, and The Brimstone Wedding (written as Barbara Vine) are available from Brilliance Audio. She lives in England.

Date of Birth:

February 17, 1930

Place of Birth:

London, England

Education:

Loughton County High School for Girls, Essex

What People are Saying About This

Patricia Cornewell

"Ruth Rendell is, unequivocally, the most brilliant mysery novelist of our time."

John Mortimer

"She is one of our most important novelist."

Reading Group Guide

1. Do you feel Rendell is more interested in exploring the psychological states of her characters than in unravelling a elaborate plot or solving a complex crime? How does this affect your enjoyment of the book?

2. There is relatively little violence in The Keys to the Street and what there is, is not particularly graphic. Consider the methods the author uses to generate the book's atmosphere of tension and menace.

3. How does Rendell's prose style contribute to the novel's feeling of near-reality?

4. Discuss the ways in which the author links together the different worlds of her characters. What devices does she use? How successful are they?

5. Are the issues around themes such as homelessness, drug addiction and bone marrow transplants explored convincingly? Should The Keys to the Street be regarded as more than just a crime novel?

6. At the end of a traditional murder-mystery, social order is restored by the identification and punishment of the criminal. How is the world of The Keys to the Street not only different, but more disturbing?

Editorial Reviews

In a story that commandsand fully rewardsintense engagement from its readers, Rendell (The Crocodile Bird; Simisola) once again proves an astute, intense observer of physical and psychological detail, demonstrating that we are surrounded by people we don't see and fail to appreciate the ways in which intimates and strangers are connected to us. Housesitting in a posh home near London's Regent's Park lets Mary Jago separate from her abusive and persistent lover, whose behavior has worsened since she decided to donate bone marrow to save the life of an anonymous recipient. When she meets Leo Nash, the marrow recipient, she enters a heady courtship with the stranger whose very being is now linked to hers. While she does notice Bean, the strange little man who works as a dog walker and behaves like a ``superior upper servant'' in an old film, and she cheerfully finds kind words for Roman Ashton, one of the area's many ``dossers,'' or street people, Mary little suspects how complex their histories are, what their fears and schemes might be or what they notice in return. Likewise, she is sheltered from the fears of the area's homeless as one after another is killed and then impaled on the spikes of park railings. When a crack is exposed in the edifice of Mary's new and happy life, the death lurking beneath it may be something else she never fully comprehends. With this meticulously crafted work, Rendell reminds us how complex, interconnected and fragile modern life is. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Someone is murdering the homeless of Regents Park by impalement, so why is Mary seeking solace in their company?

Library Journal

YARendell is again in top form in this suspenseful tale of a 30-year-old woman housesitting in a posh section of London. Mary Jago is unassuming, quiet, loath to speak up or out even in her own defensealmost mousy. She has finally worked up the courage to break up with the abusive boyfriend with whom she lives and is about to make contact with the young man to whom she donated bone marrow some months earlier. While this plot is developing, readers meet some less savory characters inhabiting the neighborhood, including a crack addict and some of his contacts and a homeless man whose mysterious past is only gradually made apparent. Mary falls in love with the bone-marrow recipient and seems to be living in an almost dreamlike state until her grandmother dies and leaves her a great deal of money, thus changing her life in ways Mary could not have dreamed. The well-drawn psychological profiles of a rather large cast and the ways in which their lives converge almost overshadow the riddle of the bodies of homeless men periodically found impaled on the fence railings of a grand park in the area. Rendell's themes, that things are seldom what they seem, and that we all go through life with blinders on, hardly understanding or even seeing what is going on around us, are extremely well executed.Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA

School Library Journal

Mary Jago is a gentle, passive, unselfish young woman. Her fiancesometimes beats her, and other people often take advantage of her sweet nature. She willingly donates her bone marrow to an anonymous leukemia victim. Months later, the recipient gratefully contacts her. Once she meets Leo, Mary experiences an odd sensation that she and he are magically linked and inevitably finds herself falling in love with this gentle, mysterious man. But nothing is as it seems. Other events and people in Mary's life are curiously intertwined in ways that will touch her dramatically. A series of brutal killings, with homeless men as victims; a man recovering from the tragic death of his family; a cruel little man who walks Mary's dog; a drug addict with a desperate and deadly habit; the death of Mary's grandmother--each of these events plays a role in an end-of-the-story climax that is at once tragic, shocking, satisfying, and hopeful. Without a doubt, Rendell ranks with today's finest writers, and this book is one of her best, examining the intricate and complex relationships between people, the possibilities and influences of good and evil in each life, the odd quirks of human nature, and the darker side of the human soul. Superbly written and beautifully constructed, the story is unique, powerful, and provocative.

Emily Melton

A delicate London flower plucks up the courage to walk out on her abusive lover—and into a vintage Rendell nightmare.

Taking advantage of her house-sitting gig outside Regent's Park, Mary Jago gives Alistair Fowler his notice; and as if by magic, a new romantic interest springs up: Leo Nash, the recipient of Mary's bone-marrow transplant, whom she's previously known only as Oliver. Leo's as gentle and considerate, as sympathetic and loving, as Alistair was everything but, and in no time Mary's counting the hours between their decorous meetings. But there are already clouds Mary doesn't see on the horizon. At first the omens are only vaguely troubling, circling around the obsessions of Roman Ashton, a magazine editor sunk to life on the streets after losing his family to a freak accident; old Leslie Bean, who can't forget his irregular relations with his late employers; and Hob, who drifts through the park in a perpetual haze while he's waiting for his next fix. But the menace soon takes on a sharper edge. The police start to find street people gruesomely impaled on the ornamental gates of the park. Bean, who's been mugged in the park, swears revenge against his attacker and considers a spot of genteel blackmail on the side. Alistair turns out to be more persistent—and more vindictive—than Mary could ever have imagined. Veterans of Rendell's peerlessly doomy fantasies (The Crocodile Bird, 1993, etc.) will know that all these perturbations are nothing more than symptoms of the real problem: the secret that makes perfect mate Leo perfectly dreadful.

Like Rendell's last Chief Inspector Wexford mystery (Simisola, 1995), this poignant tale shows the author at her most extroverted: Under her tireless probing, every social class that Regent's Park brings together turns out to be equally pathological.

Kirkus Reviews

Williams does an excellent job bringing the many characters to life. The tension and suspense build as the story moves forward. Listeners will be hooked and will keep listening. D.L.G. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

JULY 97 - AudioFile