En un miserable suburbio de Londres, Pup Yearman, de dieciséis años, incursiona en la magia. Pero para la hermana mayor de Pup, Dolly, la magia es más que un juego. Deformada por una marca de nacimiento facial, Dolly quiere desesperadamente curarse y su obsesión con la magia de Pup la envía a una peligrosa espiral descendente hacia la confusión, la locura y posiblemente el asesinato. Y mientras tanto, ,en una sórdida pensión no muy lejana, un joven irlandés afila un juego de cuchillos de carnicero...

It's a complex mixing of two separate stories. The main story is about Dolly and Pup, siblings. While a young boy Pup gets interested in magic and becomes quite obsessed with it. Dolly goes along, making him a cape and helping him with his spells as needed. Over time, Dolly's interest grows while Pup's declines. Over time, too, Dolly's need for Pup becomes greater than his need for her.

The book was written in the early 1980s, and I believe the story takes place in the 1950s. I don't remember if this is explicitly stated. I suspect it because of attitudes expressed in the book more than from anything else.

Dolly was born with a large birthmark on her face. Her parents and others assume that she has no chance for a normal married life because of this "defect". She is taken out of school early and taught to sew. She accepts her position in life, while doting on her younger brother. When their mother dies, Dolly steps in as substitute mom.

The second story is about Diarmit. Diarmit comes from a large Irish family. An accident changed his mental state and he is no longer able to work as a butcher. He lands in an apartment, where he spends most of his time dwelling on the world he has created in his head. That world is a troubling place, and he has to protect himself from it. Diarmit has a set of knives that are great protection.

There is a point when Pup and Diarmit meet, peripherally, but it is a glancing meeting that changes neither. Thus the stories continue on their paths to an inevitable collision.

As with many of Rendell's stories, this one contains characters who are not perfect. The flaws are what make the plots work and make the characters interesting. It is easy to be drawn into this world and take it with you. ( )

The Killing Doll by Ruth Rendell
Pantheon, 1984
Source: I bought this book.

While my local library has reopened in a limited capacity, I am still plugging away at my project to clear my bookshelves. I picked this Rendell because of the creepy cover, and because I figured a book from the 80s would have a different feel than a contemporary crime or psychological suspense novel. The Killing Doll delivers: it's sinister, it's heartbreaking, and it surprised me along the way.

The story centers on the Yearman family: older sister Dolly idolizes her younger brother Pup, who takes up magic (but he loves to call it geomancy). The siblings and their widower father are all grieving and wounded in their own ways: Dolly is psychologically debilitated by the port-wine birthmark on her face and her mother's death; Pup is still a teenager when his mother dies and while adrift turns to the occult for some sort of organizing principle in his life; and their father Harold runs a typewriter store by day and devours historical fiction in all of his spare time. The B story deals with a loner who lives in the Yearman's neighborhood, and he has his own host of psychological issues. He's also an orphan.

The book is mostly Dolly's story: her obsessions, her phobias, and her plans for her brother the magician. Rendell renders her agoraphobia and fears very keenly, and while I was dismayed throughout the book, I couldn't turn away. It's been five years nearly to the day that I last read Rendell (one joy of blogging is I can verify these things), and I, again, highly recommend her.

(7/10) "I kill, therefore I am."

This is one of those books I feel I shouldn't give too much away about, suffice to say it is about a teenage boy who sells his soul to the devil and how that decision affects his sister's life. When I say devil I do not mean a literal character, this is not a fantasy, rather a suspenseful study of the occult and mental illness, touching on alcoholism and with a bit of murder thrown in for good measure. Sounds cheery doesn't it?

I honestly had no idea where this was going until I was about 70% through it, Rendell builds the tension very well throughout and kept me interested enough to carry on while I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen. The characters are some of the more interesting I have read about (maybe because this would not be my go to choice of genre) and the narration was constantly switching between them which I really enjoyed. By the end I could tell who's mind I was in even if it wasn't made clear for a couple of sentences.

This is a book where the small things matter, you notice the routines of the characters and their little quirks. There is no travelling and the whole book revolves around one house in a London suburb. I think the small scope completely absorbed me and I emerged from the last page a little stunned at having been dumped back into reality.

If you like a little bit of darkness and a slow burn then this is the book for you. ( )

The Killing Doll is the second book that I have read by Ruth Rendell and both have followed the same thread, one or more of the characters slowly unraveling and descending into madness. Lethal madness. I can't say she is really my sort of thing, though the author has been tauted as the best mystery writer writing in English. I found the stories I have read to be overheated and just barely believable. I'll probably give the writer another try. ( )