Tigerlily's Orchids

April 25, 2011
Rendell's spare, sleek novel of psychological suspense gets off to a slow start, then picks up speed to become vintage Rendell, not the powerhouse of the 1990s but with enough plot petrol to blow most American authors out of the water. Personalities and generations clash and coexist at Lichfield House, a north London condominium, whose residents include Stuart Font, a vapid Romeo; 60-year-old Olwen Curtis, boozing away her liver; and Marius Potter, an ex-hippie growing fond of his neighbor, Rose Preston-Jones. Add a pedophile janitor, a trio of faddish college students, and a mysterious house across the street where immigrants from Hong Kong allegedly grow orchids, and you have all the elements for spontaneous social combustion. Less a mystery than a slice of life, the book offers a lone murder that comes across as an afterthought because neither the characters nor the reader can feel strongly about it. As always, Rendell (Portobello) spices the action with just the right gothic ingredients to keep things baroque but consistently believable.

Narrator Nickolas Grace alters his tone and pacing to match each of Rendell's characters and his or her particular obsession, including an alcoholic widow, a pedophile caretaker, and a bumbling doctor/journalist. Set almost entirely on a single street in a north London suburb, Rendell's latest psychological suspense is informed by the economic recession and environmental change. The residents of Lichfield House, who barely know each other, gather at Stuart Font's flat-warming party, unaware that the evening will start a yearlong downward spiral of exposed secrets, murder, and death. The murder is almost incidental to the stories of the victim's neighbors, but listeners will savor the details as they theorize about whodunit and appreciate how easily Grace handles the challenges of a large cast and changing points of view. C.B.L. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine