Vanity Dies Hard - Ruth Rendell
Posted in Books by Harley
Vanity Dies Hard is one of Rendell’s more psychological crime/thrillers. Alice Whittaker’s friend Nesta mysteriously vanished after Alice’s marriage and this story tells of Alice’s attempts at tracking her friend down.
I thought that there was only one interesting aspect in this story, the way that Alice’s mind spiraled downwards towards madness. I feel that there’s something wrong with this story, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Some of it is very predictable (Alice’s illness) but some of it is so far fetched that is just seems silly. I wasn’t satisfied by the ending, it seemed pointless and the imagery was lacking. I couldn’t recommend this book to anyone, if you’re a Rendell fan then of course you should read it but apart from that I can see no reason why anyone would want to.
[rating:2/10]