• Vanity Dies Hard

  • By: Ruth Rendell
  • Narrated by: Eva Haddon
  • Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
  • 3.1 out of 5 stars (32 ratings)

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Vanity Dies Hard

By: Ruth Rendell
Narrated by: Eva Haddon
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Publisher's Summary

Wealthy Alice Whittaker is known for her generosity, and when her friend Nesta vanishes Alice is determined to find her and help her. If that means money, well, Alice has plenty of it. Then the handsome Mr Fielding enters her life, ten years younger than Alice and they marry. But when Alice starts to feel sick -- a virus perhaps, something she just can't shake, her husband seems determined to keep her at home. Is he just being a doting husband who wants his wife to get better? Or is he trying to keep her from finding Nesta? Unwell though she is, Alice can't help asking questions. And the more she learns about Nesta's disappearance, the more certain she becomes that her own life is in peril

©2010 Kingsmarkham Enterprises Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Vanity Dies Hard

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  • melissa
  • 11-19-15

Loved this book

Really enjoyed this. Full of suspense. Keeps you guessing right til the end. Good Narrator too.

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Stanley
  • 08-10-10

Ruth Rendall - 'Vanity dies hard'

Delicately and senitively written. Gripping yet touching at the same time. Could mirror ones own feelings and experience in a beautifully crafted form. A splendid 'sit up at night read'
Thank you madam for a lovely book.

2 people found this helpful

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  • Mrs. P. J. P. Leishman
  • 12-11-21

Not like Ruth Rendell

I found it a bit boring at times and struggled to finish it. Not like Ruth Rendell at all

1 person found this helpful

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  • Survivor
  • 10-13-21

Rendall at her most gentle.

Rendall at her most gentle. A very satisfying listen, a quite a different side to her writing.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Marion G.
  • 08-05-21

As always, a good story

I am now (thanks to audibles free listens) catching up with Ruth Rendell and thus far, she does not disappoint. Perhaps I will plough through all her books - and there seem to be a lot - before I find one I don't enjoy. Well narrated, beautifully written so there are no complaints from me. Hope that you feel the same.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 06-01-23

Dreadful

I have listened to several books by this author, and enjoyed most of them. Unfortunately this one falls well below the normal standard. I don’t know why I carried on to the end. I really didn’t care who done it or why.

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  • Dani
  • 05-04-23

Absolutely terrible


This is the worst ive ever heard or read. Boring absolutely first class rubbish dont bother to read or listen . Its trash

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  • Cundrie
  • 04-24-23

Disappointing, so dull

Oddly banal, unmoving. Stock characters. I persisted, hoping for an interesting denouement, but found the ending unconvincing. A waste of time, unfortunately.

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  • eduardo
  • 03-13-23

Dreadful

This must be one of Ruth Rendell's worst books. Nothing of any interest happens. The characters are extremely boring.

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  • Kindle Customer
  • 03-08-23

Her worst book

I think Ruth Rendell is a bigger queen of her genre than dear Agatha I have read all of both their books but inexplicably missed this one or else freudingly forgot it. Do not start reading RR 's books with this one. The others are in a different and infinitely higher class

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  • Saraswati
  • 05-05-22

definitely not one of her best

I'm a big Rendell fan but this one was laborious. I don't think the narrator helped; some voices were irritatingly overacted. And a small thing; if the character has taken a mouthful the narrator does not need to make slurpy noises. Many people find it disturbing.

The story itself was painfully long-winded and the attempts to create tension were just a long exercise in irritation. I have never before in a Rendell book thought 'for heaven's sake, get on with it.' Other aspects of the story were tenuous and unbelievable.

I don't feel at all that I've listened to a Ruth Rendell.

1 person found this helpful

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  • Ariaan
  • 02-10-23

Disappointed

I like Ruth Rendell’s books but this one just didn’t measure up - I was disappointed - found it frivolous and difficult to focus on the story …

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  • Anonymous User
  • 11-24-22

Not what I expected

Great twists and turns in this book, love the descriptors and the end which was not expected

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  • Allie
  • 11-23-22

Disappointing and longwinded

I love Ruth Rendell and had high hopes for this book but the best word to describe it was turgid. Dreadful characters and meandering pointless narrative. i was hoping the "heroine" WOULD get knocked off, she was such an irritating wimp.