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Book Review By David Fletcher
A Sight For Sore Eyes by Ruth Rendell

The lives of several Londoners cross with disturbing results when an obsessive and remorseless young woodworking art student named Teddy Brex comes of age after years of emotional neglect at the hands of his dysfunctional family. He has been raised in an environment without affection and so it is no surprise that he finds himself feeling nothing for the deaths of his aging parents, Jimmy and Eileen Brex, from ill health. Most sinister is how little thought he gives to killing his eccentric uncle Keith in order to gain possession of his home and car. Meanwhile, Francine Hill still suffers from the trauma of her mother Jennifer's murder 10 years earlier. Hoping to make a change for the better, her father Dr. Richard Hill moves them to a new home and marries her juvenile psychologist, Julia. Julia dedicates her life to keeping Francine from harm but loses her own mind over the course of time as she fixates on the safety and care of her now teenaged stepdaughter.

Harriett, once a pop music icon forever immortalized in a famous painting by Simon Alpheton, is now in her fifties and married Fulton Merton, an old man she doesn't love. She carries on a seemingly endless string of sexual relationships for decades before she encounters the wrong subject for her latest tryst, Teddy. Harriett answers an ad for a craftsman to do some building work on her cottage and Teddy is introduced to her. Teddy has already met and become obsessed with Francine. They begin dating but their relationship is kept hidden from her father and stepmother. Teddy covets the Merton's beautiful cottage and murders several more times to get rid of those individuals who stand in the way of his happiness with Francine. Rendell's novel is a taut and steady paced psychological thriller with deep exploration into its primary characters.


Plot & Themes
Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
Time/era of story:
The crook is.... - stalking/killing innocents
descript. of violence and chases - 30 %
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 10 %
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40 %
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20 %
Crime Thriller Yes
Is MAIN CHARACTER an EVIL criminal? Yes
Is Romance a MAJOR (25%+) part of story? Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Ethnicity/Race
Unusual characteristics:

Main Adversary
Identity: - none

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - England/UK
City? Yes
City: - London
Misc setting - sewers/subways

Writing Style
Accounts of torture and death? - very gorey descriptions deaths/dead bodies
Explicit sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - touching of anatomy - descript. of breasts - descript. of male nudity - rape (yeech!)
Unusual forms of death - asphyxiation
Unusual form of death? Yes
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
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