A Judgement in Stone

LoveReading Says

This slim novel opens with an absolute bombshell of a first sentence: ‘Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write.’ Eunice, the housekeeper, shoots four of her employers in the space of fifteen minutes one Valentine's Day. As the police investigate, Eunice schemes to escape blame – desperate to preserve the terrible secret of her illiteracy.

This is not a whodunnit, but a whydunnit, and all the more fascinating for it. Because we know from the very start who committed the crime and how the murders were carried out, there is a terrible, dark inevitability to the narrative. This trajectory also makes it completely compelling. My copy of the book is just 191 pages and it’s a measure of her skill that she can write with such devastating economy, how much depth and breadth she brings to the characters and the world they inhabit. Not a word wasted – this is a crime fiction classic.

Guest Editor T.M. Logan

***

October 2013 Guest Editor Linwood Barclay on Judgement in Stone by Ruth Rendell...

This might just be the most daring crime novel ever written. In the first thirteen words, Rendell tells you who was murdered, who did it, and why. Well, why continue? Because those thirteen words set out a scenario so incredible, so hard to comprehend, you simply have to read on. Sheer genius.

LoveReading

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