Barbara Vine is a pseudonym of Ruth Rendell. A gripping, perceptive novel about a dysfunctional family and their adult but psychologically damaged son John, viewed through the eyes of Kerstin, a young Swedish nurse brought in to help the family manage John. Kerstin is quickly intrigued by the family’s flaws, and how they are treating the errant son, who is not, she thinks, schitzophrenic as they claim. Things go progressively wrong in the family, and John begins to emerge from the repressions he has been under.

I enjoyed reading this a great deal. ( )

En 1968, la enfermera sueca Kerstin Kvist acepta un trabajo en Essex para estar cerca de su amante londinense. Su cometido es cuidar de John Cosway, quien ha perdido la cabeza y permanece recluido en su biblioteca. A su llegada a la decadente mansión de Lydstep Old Hall descubre que Julia, la matriarca, es una anciana fría, obsesionada con que John no deje de tomar sus dosis de Largactil, cuyas hijas solteronas andan a la greña por haber compartido al mismo hombre. Y la muchacha no tardará en albergar dudas sobre qué miembro de los Cosway se encuentra en el lado bueno de la frontera de la locura.

Unusually well-written and plotted. I really enjoyed the sense of place and the gothic tone. ( )

This one I should have loved. Old English manor homes, labyrinths, libraries, etc... right up my alley. Didn't finish. I just didn't think it was all that good. Oh well. ( )

3 1/2 stars: Good.

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From the back cover: Swedish nurse Kerstin Kvist arrives at the vine covered Lydstep Old Hall to care for John Cosway, a former mathematical genius. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and is now kept under heavy sedation by his iron willed mother and four obsessive sisters. Initially beguiled by the sisters' raucous and entertaining social life, Kvist soon comes to believe their motivations may be more sinister. John is the sole heir of the immense Cosway estate, and as he takes his daily walks or sits quivering in the labyrinthine library, Kvist believes the rest of the family may be plotting their own ways of coming into the fortune.

The Minotaur is an elegant and gripping new novel that masterfully combines psychological suspense and Gothic horro. It is classic Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell)--an absolutely enthralling tale that keeps twisting and turning until the very last page.

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Barbara Vine is the pseudonym for Ruth Rendell when she writes psychological mysteries. This one was a good page turner, with many twists. Ultimately about people in a drudging, dead end life, desperate for a change... and one commits a crime to make that change. As with mysteries of this type, the build up is the entire book--the crime doesn't happen until the last few pages, and its barely discussed afterwards.

This was a good, but not great, story. Autism is treated as something unusual; I recognize it was not as well known at that time, but it still did not feel authentic in the story line.

A few quotes I liked:

"No milk either." I had stopped her just in time. The habit of putting milk into an infusion of [tea] leaves has always struck me as bizarre. I watched with relief as she passed me a large saucerless mug of neat brown tea, clear as the water of the Colne was in those days.

Since then I have learned that people marry for status, for security, for escape, because they have got into it and would find it very awkward and embarassing to get out of, and of course for money. ( )