Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Thirteen Steps Down

Author: Ruth Rendell

Narrator: Tim Pigott-Smith

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-23-09

Publisher: Random House AudioBooks

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Mysteries & Thrillers, Modern Detective

Publisher's Summary:

The Notting Hill neighbourhood has changed radically over the last 50 years, and 10 Rillington Place, where the notorious John Christie committed a series of foul murders, has been torn down. Mix is obsessed with the life of Christie and his small library is composed entirely of books on the subject. He has also developed a passion for a beautiful model who lives nearby - a woman who would not look at him twice.

Both landlady and lodger inhabit weird worlds of their own. But when reality intrudes into Mix's life, a long pent-up violence.

Members Reviews:

I Believe

"In Rendell's view, we seldom understand how life works and how little control we have over it; criminals are the biggest dolts of all for risking so much on schemes that are bound to go awry. What's more, murderers also lack sympathetic imagination (as opposed to the narcissistic imagination of fantasy)." So says, Ruth Rendell, and as we read this novel, we say "I Believe, I Believe!"

Mix Cellini is a work-out equipment specialist. He repairs the "things". He also obsesses about John Christie, the English serial killer, and he knows everything about him. This gives us the first clue. There are many serial killers in many mysteries, but Ruth Rendell's is the best. Mix keeps us on the edge of our seat. He is funny at times; he eats junk food and drinks strange concoctions of booze. He is in fact a very strange man, but likeable in some sense. He rents rooms at St Blaise House in the Notting Hill area which he keeps spic and span, from Gwendolen Chawcer. Gwendolen has lived in this same house since she was born- and the house is old and decrepit. Gwendolen lives in her library and her bedroom. Many rooms, none of them clean and Gwendolen lives in her own little world. She is caught up in the 1940's when she first fell in love, and she has never moved on. She, in fact, wears the same clothes. Well made and expensive, yes, but old. Gwendolen fell in love with her mother's physician many years ago, and the unrequited love has never bloomed. She lives her life in her old memories. She does not much like Mr. Cellini, nor he her. Both are obsessed. Both are strange and fixed in their ways, and that is where the difference lies. Gwendolen is harmless in her obsession. Mix has two obsessions, John Christie and the model Nessar Nash. He believes that Nessar is in love with him, and he stalks her. She notices him, but ignores him. She has her own story and that is almost as interesting as Mix and Gwendolen. Both landlady and lodger inhabit weird worlds of their own. But when reality intrudes into Mix's life, a long pent-up violence explodes.

Mix is superstitious about the number thirteen and has always felt dogged by ill-luck. In St Blaise House where he lives, there are thirteen steps down to the landing below his rooms. Ahhhh, now we know a little bit more about the whys but not the wherefores, that is for you to decipher.

How much did I love this book? I gave it to my plane seatmate. I finished the book as the plane landed in Oregon. She had told me how much she loved mystery thrillers, and this is the best there is. Holiday Spirit and all. 4.99 stars, why? The ending was mundane. 99% of the novel was first-rate, one of the best I have read. The ending deserves, well, it deserves a better ending. Ruth Rendell dedicated this novel to P.D.James, she is now her equal.

Highly recommended.