A Demon in My View

By: Ruth Rendell

Narrated by: Julian Glover

Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

In a gloomy cellar, the figure of a beautiful, pale woman makes no move when the man advances on her from the shadows, puts his hands around her neck and strangles her. Arthur Johnson is a mild-mannered, shy man who has never known how to talk to women. His resulting loneliness has twisted his yearning for love and respect into a carefully constructed predilection for violence and control. On the floor below him, Anthony Johnson, a scholar studying psychopathic personalities is about to stumble - quite literally - upon one of Arthur's many secrets.

©1976 Ruth Rendell (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award, 1976

Totally a Ruth Rendell read

This book was a good, short listen with a good narrator. It reminded me of Rendell's The Rottweiler, although this one was written first.
If you love Rendell books, then you will like this one as it quintessentially Rendell.

a demon in my view

Ruth Rendell is always one of the best. I'm always on the edge of my seat.

A gripping story, a wonderful performance

One of the best Rendell stories I have heard. Glover's performance is masterly. The characters brought to life with incredible vividness. The building atmosphere and plot hold you to the sudden, shocking, breath-taking end. A killer story.

Thrilling!

Wonderfully written. I'll never forget the view into a disturbed mind. Rendell is an exellent writer - Julian Clover is an impressive reader.

A Demon In My View

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

It's classic Rendell - i.e. she paints a vivid picture of rudderless, disparate human beings living in the pre-Gentrified parts of inner London. A myriad of strange character traits predominate in a run-down Victorian terrace.

What did you like best about this story?

The suspense and the build-up to the major plot arcs. The way in which Rendell makes you think that this will happen and often, it's quite the opposite. There's also quite a twist at the end.

Did Julian Glover do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

He was great at giving the male characters a voice and special mention must be given to the central character, Arthur Johnson and minor voices, Jonathan and Brian. I must admit that his rendition of Lynthia's speech was rather clumsy to say the least. I for one wasn't aware that she was Welsh.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Arthur's strange upbringing by his maiden aunt, Gracie and how this changed the man into a monster. The description of how things were during the years of the mid 1970s when this book is set. Life was clearly changing, but Rendell brings this all to vibrant life in her writing.

Any additional comments?

It's well worth a listen. I'm slowly collecting every single one of Rendell's non-Wexford novels.

Perfectly crafted but dated non pc phrases

I loved this clever well rounded listen but trigger warning it was written in the seventies so wouldn’t pass today although there is nothing insulting or inherently racist just some out of use words. Honestly this is well worth downloading as nothing is without meaning all the strands come together exquisitely. A psychopath is hiding in plain view, you would not give them a second glance, until they get the irresistible urge…

Entertaining but dated and racist

Entertaining story but many of the racist references to non-white people (although probably normal at the time of writing in the 70s) felt very uncomfortable.
Also the narrator’s Jamaican accent is so bad I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It is like a mix of Indian and Welsh and again quite offensive. Would be best if the narrator just used his normal voice rather than a poor caricature.

as always, a great listen.

very satisfying, character development is impressive. nice romantic back story and good tidy ending.

Great story

What a clever, tense start to a book! An unexpected ending, too. The only part I was not happy with was the poor, little mouse. I can handle murders of humans, but poor, defenceless animals........

Enjoyable

This story is set in a large multistorey house divided into rooms and flats.
Many and various characters reside here, including, obviously, this being Rendell, a murderous nutter on the top floor.
This ensemble of characters is a pleasant backdrop to the two main stories - a difficult love affair, and our psychopath. Enjoyable.

Great

This is the first Ruth Rendell book I have listened to. I really enjoyed it and am now on my second one. It has everything I look for in a novel, a well crafted plot, good characterisation, well written with good descriptions of the little details of the characters’ lives. The story is about the people living in a house that has been subdivided and rented out, and their love relationships and is written from the point of view of two men Arthur and Anthony, one is writing a thesis about psychopaths and the other is a serial killer. I enjoyed the flashbacks into Arthur’s past where we learn more about him and I found it a convincing portrayal of a twisted mind that also gained my sympathy, although I also wanted to shake him because of his paranoid thinking leading to some crazy decisions. The ending was rather abrupt and I felt a bit cheated because it was so quick and lacking in detail, but it was a great twist in the plot.

Great story, great twist.

The story flowed well, with interesting characters. I thought I could predict the ending, but I was wrong!