THE WATER'S LOVELY
Ruth Rendell
Vintage
Psychological Thriller
Hardcover: 0307381366
Paperback: 9780307388018

Seventy-seven-year-old Ruth Rendell is still writing haunting, suspenseful, riveting and sharply limned novels. In her newest effort, THE WATER'S LOVELY, she tells a tale of love, murder, lies, madness and redemption. Two sets of sisters share a renovated house where a murder took place. Pamela and Beatrix reside in the upstairs flat, while Ismay and Heather, Beatrix's daughters, are downstairs. For 13 years everyone except Pamela has lived in the shadow of a death that has driven Beatrix into madness and haunted Ismay to distraction.

At 13, Heather was a mysterious young girl who could be found eavesdropping in the shadows. One day Heather sees her 15-year-old sister in the arms of their stepfather, Guy. Ismay has no idea that she's been "caught" as she continues to flirt and play "the game" with this sleazy man. She thinks she's in love and does everything she can to lure him to bed. He never comes.

Time passes, and Beatrix takes Ismay shopping. Guy is ill and in bed. Heather is supposed to be at a friend's house, but that date was canceled at the last minute. This leaves her in the house alone with the man she loathes. Heather may appear cold and distant, but she has a healthy intuition. Guy calls to her and asks her to bring him something while he sits in the bathtub. Since she and her sister have their own bathroom, Heather was never in that one. It's strange for her to be standing there in this "forbidden" room handing Guy the shampoo. She's ready to leave when he invites her to join him. Without thinking, she grabs his feet and pulls him under the water until he's dead.

When the others return, Heather alerts them to Guy's dead body but claims she doesn't know what happened. Beatrix has enough strength to protect Heather by concocting an alibi for her: she had been shopping with her mother and sister but decided not to enter the shop. The police buy it and rule Guy's death a suicide. Almost immediately after things get relatively quiet, "the knowledge" (or lack of it) drives Beatrix "over the edge into the shadow of schizophrenia."

None of them ever talk about what happened or what Heather's part may have been. Ismay is plagued with thoughts about her sister and whether or not she is capable of murder, but never says a word. The girls grow up and go to school. Heather becomes a chef and Ismay an accountant. Ismay then falls in love --- blindly in love, passionately in love --- with Andrew Campbell-Sedge, a very good looking man who nevertheless has a hidden Jekyll-Hyde personality and is capable of doing great harm.

Andrew loathes Heather and calls her "that little gorgon" who he must put up with since she lives with Ismay. Then Heather falls in love with Edmund Litton, an overqualified nurse who works in the hospice where she's the chef. Andrew is furious; he wants Heather out of the house and is afraid "this male nurse" might move in with her. He complains and challenges Ismay with the threat of leaving.

Both the knowledge of this new relationship and Andrew's constant threats throw Ismay into the vortex of guilt, confusion, fear, responsibility, and what, if anything, her role should be if she is to protect her future brother-in-law. She can't tell him, though she does makes a tape just in case she has to inform someone. She decides to hide the tape and forget about it. Andrew leaves her, and she doesn't recover from his loss. For a very long time she "fades away into some parallel universe" where she tortures herself over and over.

In the hands of Rendell, the story doesn't end there. Additional characters make their mark in these peoples' lives, and other murders touch them all in strange ways. She always imbues her plots with fire and seamlessly merges the tension of the events into believable circumstances that keep readers apace. Another strength that supports the architecture of her books is that her characters not only fit their roles but also are stationed in their place. As the tale unfolds, readers instinctively know the book wouldn't work without this supporting cast. In addition to fleshing out the story, Rendell gives "life" to her players. She gets her inspiration from being observant and transforms what she sees or senses into innately convincing mysteries. Don't miss this one!

   --- Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum

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