A Dark-Adapted Eye (Plume)
A Dark-Adapted Eye (Plume) book cover

A Dark-Adapted Eye (Plume)

Kindle Edition

by
Price
$6.99
Publisher
Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller
Publication Date

Description

“A rich, beautifully crafted novel . . . In A Dark-Adapted Eye we have Rendell at the height of her powers.”—P. D. James “When the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world launched a second byline, she actually stepped up her writing a level.”— Time Edgar Award–winning author Ruth Rendell (b. 1930) has written more than seventy books that have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (London), she is the recipient of the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers’ Association. Rendell’s award-winning novels include A Demon in My View (1976), A Dark-Adapted Eye (1987), and King Solomon’s Carpet (1991). Her popular crime stories featuring Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford were adapted into a long-running British television series (1987–2000) starring George Baker. From AudioFile The family of Vera Hillyard, one of the few British women executed for murder, deal with the horrible event in various ways. Her niece recounts the circumstances for a journalist who is preparing a novel about Vera. The psychological effects of the past crime are intricately detailed by Rendell.Sophie Ward does an excellent job spinning the tale and edging the listener closer and closer to its gripping conclusion. Her British accent and buoyant voice are excellent for the niece's first-person narrative and the female characters. Her portrayal of the complex family dynamics is compelling. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Writing under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, Ruth Rendell departs from her famous detective team of Wexford and Burden to tell a gripping tale of family madness. Vera Hillyard is a domineering and possessive woman who strives for obsessive control over a malicious older son, a youngest son who is--or isn't--illegitimate, and her younger sister, Eden, who secretly seeks to escape Vera's grasp and instead provokes a murder. This winner of the 1986 Edgar Award for best mystery novel belongs to the genre of old murders reconsidered and the question of who did what to whom and why is teasingly left unresolved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. No other living mystery writer complains more openly about the burden of fans expecting her to bring back series characters when she has other pursuits in mind. In A Dark-Adopted Eye . . . Rendell does what Conan Doyle never could: proves she has something far greater to offer. -- Publishers Weekly --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • A woman investigates the shocking secrets that brought down her once proud family in this suspenseful Edgar Award winner from a
  • New York Times
  • –bestselling author.
  • Faith Severn has never understood why the willful matriarch of her high-society family, aunt Vera Hillyard, snapped and murdered her own beloved sister. But long after Vera is condemned to hang, a journalist’s startling discoveries allow Faith to perceive her family’s story in a new light.   Set in post–World War II Britain,
  • A Dark-Adapted Eye
  • is both a gripping mystery and a harrowing psychological portrait of a complex woman at the head of a troubled family. Called “a rich, beautifully crafted novel” by P. D. James,
  • Time
  • magazine has described its author as “the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world.”

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(573)
★★★★
20%
(382)
★★★
15%
(287)
★★
7%
(134)
★
28%
(535)

Most Helpful Reviews

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the real mystery is why we should care about these characters and their coyly revealed secrets

I'm an admirer of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine, but this novel - heavily praised and awarded the Edgar for best mystery in 1986 - stumped me. The ending is announced on the first page, but our narrator, Faith, who attempts to untangle the events that led up to it, spends two hundred pages circling around, telling and re-telling the coyly revealed secrets of her aunts and cousins. With the exception of Jamie, they are repellent and even nasty people, while Faith herself remains a blank to us. The crime for which Vera is executed (I'm not giving anything away that you can't read on the first page) is purportedly motivated by intense love. But "love" is a concept that none of these family members seems familiar with; instead, they are cold, manipulative, and obsessive.

A family tree at the beginning might making reading easier, but overall I don't think the book is worth the time it takes to read it.
22 people found this helpful
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A mystery that maintains its mystery

This is my first novel by Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine, and have I been missing out! Ms. Rendell is a prolific writer of mysteries, while her alter ego Ms. Vine writes psychological mysteries. A Dark-Adapted Eye is a doozy!

As the title suggests, we do not always see things clearly and things are not always as they appear. Perspective changes. The book is narrated by Faith when she is an adult. She is looking back on her childhood and her time spent with her persnickety and difficult Aunt Vera. We find out early on that Vera has been hanged for murder. Faith has been contacted by an author who wants to write a book about Vera and uncover some family secrets in the process. Additionally, Vera was involved (or was she?) in the disappearance of a 2 year old girl in her care when Vera was a teenager. Some family members agree to help while others refuse. The events are reconstructed by Faith, the author, and various family members. There is much speculation about family relationships and motives. The pictured is muddied by the fact that this is a family who enjoy their secrets. Vera and her sister Eden are idolized by some and reviled by others. To give more plot details would ruin the way the story is slowly revealed in bits and pieces.

Faith is irritated by her aunts Vera and Eden for the way they start a story in the middle and assume you know all the details. The book unravels in the same way. You get nuggets of information from Faith that are not clear until later. That could be irritating, but it is well done here and builds the suspense. I also appreciate that several of the major family secrets remain secrets. If you like your book endings tied in a bow, this is not the book for you. The writing itself is superb. My only quibble with the book is that I had trouble keeping all of the family members straight for about the first third. It is a gnarled family tree and requires all of your attention. I highly recommend this book and will be reading more of Barbara Vine in the future.
15 people found this helpful
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Disappointing

I was disappointed in this book which has received so many accolades. On the positive side, it does a good job of depicting the lives of a dysfunctional British family in the early 20th century. It provides good descriptions of the obstacles faced during the wars too. The characters of Vera, Eden and Faith were well developed. I thought the plot idea was a good one. I finished reading it.

Why didn't I like it?

1. There are way too many characters in it. I would have liked a family tree in the beginning in order to keep track of them.

2. Most of the book is not in the present. It is Faith gathering her memories or reading material gathered by others in order to get information for a journalist. Thus she is telling us rather than showing us.

3. Other than Vera, Eden, and Faith, the characters did not seem well developed to me

4. The big twist became apparent to me about 75% through the book. It wasn't hard to guess.

5. The book is billed as a mystery and I suppose it is, but we know "who done it" from the first few pages. We just don't know who the victim is or the reason. That is revealed in what I call the big twist.

6. The author gives an explanation of what happened at the end of the book. Again, she is telling us rather than showing us. Furthermore, some of it seemed weird. All in all, I thought the ending was unsatisfactory.

7. It was not a page turner. I never felt like I had to pick the book up after putting it down until near the end. I did feel like it became more of a page turner toward the end, but that was partly due to wanting to finish it and move on to another book.
15 people found this helpful
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This is a.head scratcher.

This is a head scratcher. The best I can come up with is that it's a work of literary fiction with a crime as its basis. I find it a real stretch to consider it properly marketed as "a mystery." It has some beautiful writing and some intriguing ideas. However it's all about the unraveling of a tragic family event that the reader has no reason whatsoever to have become involved with. We see nothing unfolding. We hear nothing being said in real time that would draw us into the significant events of the story. It's all past tense, and.not even past tension. When the protagonist/author says "Surprise...this is all there is", she may be finding it gratifying; however it's difficult to believe that any mystery lover would.
9 people found this helpful
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Boring to the extreme

The real mystery in this book is how it was ever considered for publication, much less awarded an Edgar. Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine, should have been brought up on charges attempted murder by obfuscation and intentional infliction of boredom.
9 people found this helpful
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after finishing the book I felt like I wasted a lot of time for no positive ...

The fact that Vera is a murderer and sentenced to death is revealed right up front so no spoiler alert there! I kept reading as I really wanted to find out about the actual murder. Honestly though, after finishing the book I felt like I wasted a lot of time for no positive return and should just have flipped to the end. It was just too darn plodding and felt like "work" to read. I wished I had started a list of the characters as some other reviewers suggested as half the time I could not remember who was who, which was unfortunate as it did have some provocative characters but it was confusing to understand the relationships. I can really get into a dark twisted story on occasion but for some reason this just fell flat for me. It did have some intriguing plot development though, i.e., the continued cycle of child abandonment to extended family. And I did enjoy the descriptive setting of the war years and social strata of the time. Interestingly, I think this would make an excellent movie!
7 people found this helpful
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Stick with Rendell

While I can appreciate that authors often write under various names in order to avoid the rigid expectations of established fans, in this case, the expectations of a tightly wound plot with interesting characters are motley. Wandering plot threads, extraneous characters...dizzying and, in the end, unsatisfying.
7 people found this helpful
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review of A Dark-Adapted Eye.

While I enjoyed it, there were too many characters and way to confusing. It took me considerable londer to get through because of this. I had to keep looking up the characters. I felt she kept us guessing too long and her effort to capture us was thwarted because of this. I only finished it because I can't leave a book unfinished.
7 people found this helpful
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Who's My Mama?

It took several attempts to get past the first chapter, to acquaint myself with the protagonists and antagonists who inhabit this volume and the time periods in which they lived.
Set mainly in England's countryside during the world's second war, this lengthy novel takes side trips into the times before and after and into other locales, to flesh out its characters and to add depth to the story. Red herrings abound, making for an adventurous psychological whodunit.
Just as I can see more clearly through eyes grown accustomed to available light, this volume makes excellent use of the memories of those who inhabit it, be they as clear as a sunlit day or shrouded in twilight memories and storm clouds.
6 people found this helpful
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Not the best Ruth Rendell

Nothing drives me crazier than a confusing novel that poses a question then takes 95% of the book, through boring drivel, to answer it. Didn't keep my attention well. Lots better RR/Barbara Vine out there.
6 people found this helpful

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