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Read The Lake Of Darkness (2001)

The Lake of Darkness (2001)

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Genre
Rating
3.73 of 5 Votes: 1
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ISBN
0375704973 (ISBN13: 9780375704970)
Language
English
Publisher
vintage

The Lake Of Darkness (2001) - Plot & Excerpts

Martin Urban, a square 28-year-old accountant, wins 100,000 pounds in the football pools thanks to the picks from his attractively louche friend Tim. Martin plans to use the windfall to play Lord Bountiful, bestowing gifts upon strangers to assist them with housing woes (any housing woes his friend Tim might have don't factor into Martin's decision; he neglects to mention the win to Tim). Meanwhile, Finn is up to no good, again. This time he's been asked to knock off a tenant so her greedy landlord can sell the property. Finn intends to make the death look like an accident in order to spare the feelings of his poor mother, who was nearly unhinged by a bloody murder Finn committed when he was 15. But when opportunity presents itself, Finn strikes quickly, bludgeoning the woman with a handy hammer. One afternoon a delivery girl arrives at Martin's apartment bearing chysanthemums. The card is illegible, and the girl is delectable, so Martin drops in at the flower shop in order to ascertain who has sent him the flowers. He fails on that count, but succeeds in picking up Francesca. The reader, of course, suspects that something about Francesca is not what it seems, because someone so gorgeous shouldn't be wasting her time with boring Martin. Francesca strings Martin along for a bit before a small item in the newspaper alerts him to the fact that she is married and has a child. He underlines part of the item and writes the address where he supposes she lives with her husband in the margin. Soon he's trying to persuade her to leave her husband and marry him, sweetening the deal with the offer of an apartment. Martin continues his attempts at charity, too. He hears that his family's former housekeeper, Lena, lives in a cramped apartment. He contacts Lena's son, Finn, to give him enough money to settle his mother in more spacious quarters. Of course Finn is accustomed to a different sort of meeting. He leaves convinced that Martin would like Finn to do that particular type of job that he recently carried out for the greedy landlord. He insists on cash payment. When Martin sends a bundle of cash to Finn, it is wrapped in old newspaper. Finn finds an underlined item and an address, and believes he has his orders. What Martin doesn't realize is that Francesca lives with Tim. Tim whose photographic memory certainly didn't forget the footballpicks he sent to his friend and who was angry at not getting a cut. Tim has sent Francesca to entice expensive gifts out of Martin. A flat in her name is more than they hoped for. Once the papers are signed, Francesca can drop Martin. Martin can't understand why Francesca doesn't call. Why he can't reach her at the new apartment. Why she appears not even to have moved into the new apartment. He heads off to consult his friend Tim. Although he's always refused to go to Tim's apartment (because he believes Tim to be gay and feels a disturbing attraction to him) he goes there now. And when the door is opened, he finds not only Tim but also...Lindsay. And he finds out that Francesca was not only playing him for a fool, she also was hit by a van and killed two days ago. Now that his job is complete, Finn is waiting for the second installment of his payment. He heads to Martin's apartment to confront him. Martin realizes that Finn killed Francesca, and Finn realizes Martin really did just want to see Lena in better housing. Martin moves to call the police, Finn moves to stop him, and Martin falls back over the balcony railing to his death. Finn thinks it will be OK. If he leaves quickly, there's nothing that will bring the police to his door. He hurries home to Lena. Only then does he remember the cheque Martin began writing in his apartment, a cheque that Martin thought would be used for a new apartment for Lena and that Finn thought would pay him for a job done. Had he gotten as far as writing in Finn's name? The sirens in the night are his only answer.

A mild mannered accountant wins a large sum of money, and decides to give half of it away. He won it by listening to an old friend, a man he calls beautiful, though only a proper man can admit to himself such a thing about a homosexual! He then meets a mysterious young lady, and becomes embroiled in her web. At the same time, the son of his old housekeeper makes extra money by running 'errands' for others. His mother witnessed a violent crime many years ago and came out scarred, but with the ability to see auras, and often seeing how dark the one is around her son. A misunderstanding between the two young men leads an outcome that is both unexpected and tragic.I haven't logged all my Rendell reads here, but I feel this is one of her masterpieces. The skill with which she weaves the two tales into one related conclusion leads you slowly and painfully into the finale. Ruth's stories are not for the squeamish- she's not afraid to throw some blood and guts in them. But it's the minds of the sociopaths, the psychology of these crimes, that keep you up long after the lights have gone out.

What do You think about The Lake Of Darkness (2001)?

I stumbled upon Ruth Rendell in my teens and, with the exception of Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series, I have persistently returned to her novels. To me Rendell is a genius! Judging by the synopses on the covers of her books, most of her plots seem a trifle bland, not to say boring. However, once you give it a go, you get sucked into her stories.All her psychological novels have got one decisive feature: She creates protagonists that on the surface have got absolutely nothing in common with each other. As her stories unravel, the author creates a web of fateful connections between her protagonists, and in the end all are entangled in a web of (often) unintended and horrific consequences. The “Lake of Darkness” is a case in point. Following guidance from his erstwhile university friend Tim Sage, Martin, a young accountant from a well – to-do family, wins a fortune in the football pools. Due to philanthropic impulses, Martin decides to put his wealth to good use and draws up a list of deserving people, who he considers to be in need of financial help. Amongst the beneficiaries is Lena, the family’s former, mentally – ill cleaner, who lives together with her son, Finn, in a shabby London bed-sit. Finn is a sociopath, who not only works as a handyman, but also as a contract killer. When Martin contacts Finn with the good news, Finn completely misunderstands Martin’s philanthropic motive and assumes that Martin’s “gift” is intended to pay for his services as a killer. Meanwhile, all the reader can do is follow the tragedy unfold as the two worlds collide.Just like Martin, the educated and professionally successful bachelor, who has only recently moved out from a somewhat (sterile) parental home in order to move into an up-market (sterile) flat, Finn lives in an isolated world, defined by a belief in the supernatural, his own invincibility and his mentally deranged mother. Whilst Finn is a loner by choice, all of Martin’s social relationships are of a more or less functional nature. By the same token, it is exactly this very isolation that is the trigger behind Martin’s irrational choices, above all his almost childish devotion to his girlfriend, Francesca. Both characters simply occupy different social spaces, which in the end collide. The motif of social isolation and its consequences permeates many Rendell novels and “Lake of Darkness” is no exception. In fact, it is to a large extent due to this underlying isolation that Rendell’s characters assume deeply tragic qualities.Apart from her qualities as a writer of psychological novels, Rendell’s stories should be viewed as historical documents, sketching the development of London and the home counties. “Lake of Darkness”, for instance, is set against the background of acute housing shortages and the onset of the property boom in the capital during the 1970s and 1980s. Whilst I have to admit that the plot of the story is at times slightly unbelievable (hence only four stars), “Lake of Darkness” is a gripping book, deeply tragic, full of wonderful prose and poignant dialogue, with sometimes even comic attributes.
—Xena

Another good book by Ruth Rendell, perhaps more fun than others of hers I have read. Martin Urban has just come into rather a lot of money, betting on the football pool. He decides he wants to use his winnings to help other people, and finds out that it's not as easy as it sounds. Finn is an unscrupulous character whose path might never have crossed Martin's, were it not for their two mothers. Into the mix comes Francesca, a clerk in a flower shop, for whom Martin falls head over heels in love. How these three mix will take the reader through several unexpected twists and turns and proves that no good deed goes unpunished.
—Bev

Another of Rendell's very dark psychological thrillers based on seemingly innocent actions by an unsuspecting and basically naive person. In this case, it is an accountant who fits the stereotype of that profession. He wins 100,000 pounds in the football pools and decides to use it to help people that he doesn't know find appropriate housing. To say that this is a mistake is putting it mildly as his path crosses with a grasping female who is not what she appears, an old friend who challenges his sexuality, and a serial killer. It is a disaster waiting to happen.....and it does. I really liked this little book which can be read at one sitting.
—Jill Hutchinson

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