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The Water's Lovely
- Narrated by: Siân Thomas
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
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Summary
The man who had died was Ismay's stepfather, Guy. Nine years on, she and her sister, Heather, still live in the same house in Clapham. But it has been divided into two self-contained flats. Their mother lives upstairs with her sister, Pamela. And the bathroom, where Guy drowned, has disappeared. Ismay works in public relations, and Heather in catering.
They get on well. They always have. They never discuss the changes to the house, still less what happened that August day. But even lives as private as these, where secrets hang in the air like dust, intertwine with other worlds and other people. And, with painful inevitability, the truth will emerge.
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What listeners say about The Water's Lovely
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- F. O. Bonney
- 28-04-21
Classic Rendell
Strap in for the ride as the carefully-drawn characters perform their complicated interweaving dance and Rendell takes you exactly where she chooses. She's in the driver's seat as always. Wall or cliff, you just have to wait and see. Lovely reading too.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Richard H
- 03-01-22
Riveting!
At almost 70 I’ve been a very late convert to Ruth Rendell - I think partly because when I was younger there was a very contagious (and totally spurious!) literary snobbery against “crime fiction’ - so it’s been a real treat to find so many of her novels downloadable for free on Audible and I’ve been gobbling them up at the rate of 2 or 3 per week and can’t get enough of this prolific author’s excellent output. A great strength of “The Water’s Lovely” is the utter believability of each of a disparate cast of characters, from petty criminals on the margins of society blagging & scheming “to get by”, to the upper class “entitled” male bully and his counterpart, the uber wealthy airhead; to vicious self-centred ageing middle-class females who’ve never lifted a finger in their lives but waste no time stirring up everyone else’s, to victimhood addicts, to the sort of middle management pub bore who suspects whole swathes of the population of ripping off the taxpayer - and so on, all immediately identifiable and, sadly, probably reminding us of someone we’ve met, and yet beautifully drawn with great psychological insights and empathy, such that we’re presented with individuals who feel “real”, with no clichés or cardboard cut-outs. All wrapped up in a page-turner where you’re constantly second guessing each one’s next move or piece of villainy, and the significance of the title is only revealed at the very end by which time it’s clear that the water is going to be pretty “unlovely” for all but just a couple of the protagonists!
Ms Rendell must have had several atlases plus a wide-angle camera lodged in her brain because, just as she brings rural England to life in the Wexford novels, so also does she penetrate the London streets and parks so you almost feel as if you’re trotting around this cityscape alongside her characters.
Beautifully and feelingly read by Siân Thomas.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Ms. S. Bryan
- 09-09-21
A bit dull
I found that this seemed to be set in a time gone by and not the modern day. I kept thinking it would pick up, but it never did.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Squeaky Joe
- 19-10-22
A disappointing book.
Haunted by the death of her stepfather, Ismay believes she knows how he died, and who killed him, but talking about it with her sister and mother is too difficult. Years later, living in separate flats within the same house in Clapham, the sisters’ lives are changing. As their respective relationships with Ed and Andrew develop, Ismay is certain the time will come when she has to face the truth, whatever it is.
I have a memory of reading several Ruth Rendell novels many years ago, but for the life of me can’t recall which ones. As I tend to have several books on the go at the same time, I picked this one as an audiobook. To be honest, if I’d been reading it as a paperback, I’m not sure I’d have made it to the end. To be fair, the story, for the most part, proved interesting enough to keep me listening, but all the way through several issues kept niggling away at me. Firstly, the book is meant to be set in the early 2000s, but references to things like floppy discs (which were in use up until the late 1990s) make no sense and the idea that none of the characters seem able or willing to access email and the Internet, is simply too stupid. However, my main issue with the book is that all the characters, their attitudes and dialogue, reek of something set in the 1950s. The suggestion (by other reviewers) that the author pulled this one out of a pile of old manuscripts and did a bit of tweaking certainly rings true, but what is unforgivable is that Ms Rendell either couldn’t be bothered or was too long in the tooth to bring the story up to date and allow her characters to live in the real world.
I dare say I might get stamped on by Rendell fans, but this was a disappointing book from an author with a (perhaps undeserved) huge reputation. As you might expect, I won’t be reading any more of her work.
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2 people found this helpful
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- SEA, Charente
- 03-12-17
Gripping and full of suspense right up until the last page
Another Rendell classic, perfectly narrated by Sian Thomas.
This masterful story of unproved murder and family tensions cannot be bettered.
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2 people found this helpful
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- EC
- 04-09-22
Disappointing - don’t waste your time
I stuck it out because I wanted to know what happened at the end. But it was really not worth it at all. Shallow, unrealistic characters and too many plot holes/loose ends. Ending was very anticlimactic.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Thomas
- 04-09-22
Long drawn out, repetitive mediocre ending.
I have waaay too much of my time to this book thinking that it would pick up. That it would have a gritty turn somewhere. Alas, I was disappointed. It kept me optimistic to the point of delusional! I spent last night on my holiday into the wee hours listening, convinced it would get better. It didn’t. Shame as it’s my first Ruth Rendell, she cannot be as critically acclaimed, based on writing like this, so I will try another. I’m not trying to be scathing I was just bitterly disappointed.
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1 person found this helpful
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- ANN OLDFIELD
- 01-12-21
Masterful
So impressed by her skill in building a story and wrapping it up with a neat bow on top
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1 person found this helpful
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- richard2
- 25-11-21
One of her best!
Really absorbing and enjoyable with the usual array of pretty horrible ‘extras’ and the two sisters more fully realised. Reminded me of a poem (Rondeau Redouble) by Wendy Cope in which the first line is ‘There are so many kinds of awful men’ !!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 14-03-24
fantastic
another brilliant storyline, thoroughly enjoyed.
now onto another one of Ruth Rendells excellent novels, fab!
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