The Saint Zita Society
Author(s): Ruth Rendell
'Someone had told Dex that the Queen lived in Victoria. So did he, but she had a palace and he had one room in a street off Warwick Way. Still he liked the idea that she was his neighbour.' Dex works as a gardener for Dr Jefferson at his home on Hexam Place in Pimlico: an exclusive street of white-painted stucco Georgian houses inhabited by the rich, and serviced by the not so rich. The hired help, a motley assortment of au pairs, drivers and cleaners, decide to form the St Zita Society (Zita was the patron saint of domestic servants) as an excuse to meet at the local pub and air their grievances. When Dex is invited to attend one of these meetings, the others find that he is a strange man, seemingly ill at ease with human beings. These first impressions are compounded when they discover he has recently been released from a hospital for the criminally insane, where he was incarcerated for attempting to kill his own mother. Dex's most meaningful relationship seems to be with his mobile phone service provider, Peach, and he interprets the text notifications and messages he receives from the company as a reassuring sign that there is some kind of god who will protect him. And give him instructions about ridding the world of evil spirits...Accidental death and pathological madness cohabit above and below stairs in Hexam Place.
Product Information
Ruth Rendell's new psychological thriller is a gripping examination of society. And the darkness is never far away ...
"Probably the greatest living crime writer in the world" -- Ian Rankin "As a page-turner there are few who can match Ruth" -- Colin Dexter "Unequivocally, the most brilliant mystery writer of our time. She magnificently triumphs in a style that is uniquely hers and mesmerising" -- Patricia Cornwell "Rendell is a great storyteller who knows how to make sure that the reader has to turn the pages out of a desperate need to find out what is going to happen next" -- John Mortimer "There are quite a few Ruth Rendells: the doyenne of the traditional English detective novel; the queen of the psychological thriller; the celebrated author of the literary thriller; and her most recent incarnation, as a writer of blackly comic fairy tales set in London." Mail on Sunday
Ruth Rendell has won many awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with A Demon in My View; a second Edgar in 1984 from the Mystery Writers of America for the best short story, 'The New Girl Friend'; and a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986. She was also the winner of the 1990 Sunday Times Literary award, as well as the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.
General Fields
- :
- : Cornerstone
- : Arrow Books Ltd
- : 0.257
- : 01 June 2013
- : 198mm X 129mm
- : United Kingdom
- : books
Special Fields
- : Ruth Rendell
- : Paperback
- : Paperback
- : 713
- : 713
- : English
- : English
- : 823.914
- : 823.914
- : very good
- : very good
- : 352
- : 352