The Keys to the Street

The Keys to the Street

by Ruth Rendell
The Keys to the Street

The Keys to the Street

by Ruth Rendell

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Overview

From Edgar Award-winning author Ruth Rendell, quiet, pretty Mary Jago could never have suspected that a series of unspeakable murders in the park contained threads that tangled around her simple, ordinary life.

Set near London's Regent's Park, where the city's wealthiest, poorest, kindest, and most vicious citizens all cross paths, The Keys to the Street reminds us how interconnected life can be and how we're often surrounded by people that we fail to see. 

Mary generously donates her bone marrow to save the life of a young man she doesn't know, which will change her life forever. It leads to her bitter break up with Alistair and then to a relationship with the young man whose life she saved, Leo Nash. But when the homeless who seek refuge in the park start turning up murdered and impaled on the spiked railings that surround it, Mary is closer to danger than she ever could have imagined.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780307801142
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Publication date: 09/07/2011
Sold by: Random House
Format: eBook
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 1,043,730
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

About The Author
RUTH RENDELL (1930-2015) wrote more than seventy books and sold more than twenty million copies worldwide. An Edgar Award winner and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (London), she was the recipient of the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers' Association. Rendell also wrote mysteries under the name of Barbara Vine. 


Date of Birth:

February 17, 1930

Place of Birth:

London, England

Education:

Loughton County High School for Girls, Essex

What People are Saying About This

Patricia Cornewell

"Ruth Rendell is, unequivocally, the most brilliant mysery novelist of our time."

John Mortimer

"She is one of our most important novelist."

Reading Group Guide

1. Do you feel Rendell is more interested in exploring the psychological states of her characters than in unravelling a elaborate plot or solving a complex crime? How does this affect your enjoyment of the book?

2. There is relatively little violence in The Keys to the Street and what there is, is not particularly graphic. Consider the methods the author uses to generate the book's atmosphere of tension and menace.

3. How does Rendell's prose style contribute to the novel's feeling of near-reality?

4. Discuss the ways in which the author links together the different worlds of her characters. What devices does she use? How successful are they?

5. Are the issues around themes such as homelessness, drug addiction and bone marrow transplants explored convincingly? Should The Keys to the Street be regarded as more than just a crime novel?

6. At the end of a traditional murder-mystery, social order is restored by the identification and punishment of the criminal. How is the world of The Keys to the Street not only different, but more disturbing?

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