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A Judgement In Stone

a chilling and captivatingly unsettling thriller from the award-winning Queen of Crime, Ruth Rendell

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A Judgement In Stone

By: Ruth Rendell
Narrated by: Carole Hayman
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Four members of the Coverdale family - George, Jacqueline, Melinda and Giles - died in the space of fifteen minutes on the 14th February, St Valentine's Day.

Eunice Parchman, the illiterate housekeeper, shot them down on a Sunday evening while they were watching opera on television. Two weeks later she was arrested for the crime.

But the tragedy neither began nor ended there.


© Ruth Rendell 1986 (P) Penguin Audio 2011

 Crime Thrillers Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense
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Critic reviews

One of her masterpieces. (Jake Kerridge)
All stars
Most relevant
I loved it from the beginning to the end.
Great story and so well read.

A murder with a difference!

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I really liked this book when I read it many years ago. I made the mistake of purchasing this without listening to a sample. The narrator’s versions of Melinda and Joan’s voices are like nails down a blackboard, so shrill I had to turn it off. Such a shame. Good book, awful narration.

Narration dreadful

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A tale to prove a fine writer can up-end the usual conventions of a who dunnit, tell the story 'backwards', and create just as much suspense. Well worth a read for a new take on what can lead to murder, and protagonists you can believe in. Slightly grating mimickry of female voices but not enough to spoil it.

Ending and beginnings and vice versa

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see title - some of the accents made my teeth hurt

other than that RR story very good

not sure about narrators attempt at accents

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Revisiting this book after first reading it more than 30 years ago reminded me of what a misanthrope Rendell comes across as. My Lord, she has it in for everyone, making digs at the rich man in his castle and the poor man at his gate with equal glee. You do just want to get a bucket of popcorn sometimes and sit back and watch whilst she helps you understand how vile or stupid just about everybody in the country is these days, what with murdering one another and eating baked goods of inferior quality in cafes. And I do mean these days, because you always get the feeling that Rendell believes things were better in the past. But this is all baffling, because we know what a kind, helpful, generous person she was IRL. This has to be one of her best books. The crime itself isn't really the point: it's more of an excuse for us to gawp at how ghastly some people are, whether they are reading the Guardian arts pages and discussing opera with their children or deploying soft furnishings to silence forever a troublesome invalid. But oh, the crime is horrible, too, and will stay with you.

I wonder if there's anyone she likes

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