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Tigerlily's Orchids

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Tigerlily's Orchids

By: Ruth Rendell
Narrated by: Nickolas Grace
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When Stuart Font decides to throw a house-warming party in his new flat, he invites all the people in his building. After some deliberation, he even includes the unpleasant caretaker and his wife. There are a few other genuine friends on the list, but he definitely does not want to include his girlfriend, as that might involve asking her husband.

The party will be one everyone remembers. But not for the right reasons. All the occupants of Lichfield House are about to experience a shocking change in their lives as Tigerlily casts her terrible spell....

©2010 Kingsmarkham Enterprises (P)2010 WF Howes Ltd Suspense Thriller & Suspense Marriage Fiction
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An entertaining tale of a group of residents who live in the houses and an apartment block of an obscure north London suburb. Rendell's usual mix of social commentary and crime are paramount in this novel.

Tigerlily's Orchids

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Was this really written by Ruth Rendell? It was one of those books that you keep reading just because you think it has to get better - but it doesn't!

Tedious

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I am a big fan of Ruth Rendell, and can only hope that she wrote this book with tongue firmly in cheek.

The book revolves around the residents of a block of flats, and the people living in the houses opposite.

The book is populated by bizarre characters exaggerated beyond the point of credulity, and yet painted so thinly they cast no shadow: A richkid wanabe playboy who isn't rich enough or playboyish enough, a fashion journalist who is too shallow even to be a fashion journalist, an alcoholic who has adopted alcoholism as a way of life, a people watching old man who dreams up lives for the people he watches and is always wrong, and the list goes on. Then there is Tigerlily herself, who, despite the description you'll read on this site, casts no particular spell, terrible or otherwise, apart from a mild one over the main protagonist, and is more peripheral to the book than the description would have you believe.

When the murder does occur, the police investigation proceeds remarkably smoothly and the book limps its way to an unremarkable conclusion.

If you've nothing else to do

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I found this book predictable and iritating. The characters were single dimentional and the plot strained. The product plugs jarred. Don't bother.

I EXPECTED BETTER

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A real disappointment-boring, pointless, no characters of any subtlety. The narrator sounds like a naive and over enthusiastic vicar.
However much you may usually enjoy Ruth Rendell, this is AWFUL.

This is a turkey - don’t waste a credit!

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