13 STEPS DOWN

Michael "Mix" Cellini is a psychopath obsessed with a famous serial killer and with young model Nerissa Nash. He rents rooms in the disintegrating mansion of Gwendolen Chawcer, an octogenarian eccentric obsessed with a man she knew fifty years ago. All Rendell's perfectly drawn characters provide narrator Ric Jerrom with opportunities for black comedy, chilling descriptions, and insights into upper-crust snobbery. Jerrom's voices and attitudes take the listener directly into the characters' lives, into Chawcer's stuffy, shabby mansion, into Cellini's unrealistic hopes and dreams, and into Nerissa Nash's terror in the face of her stalker. Jerrom is a masterful storyteller, and Rendell provides enough genteel horror to scare your pants off. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 06]