Hi Everyone-

I love the occasional mystery, so I'd like to take this chance to sing the praises of the great Ruth Rendell, my favorite contemporary mystery author. I remember the first novel of hers I ever read—Anna's Book, written under her psuedonym of Barbara Vine. This was about a dozen years ago, and I remember coming in every day and talking to my colleague Deana, who had finished the book about a week before I started it. I must have driven her to distraction with my guesses about the solutions to the novel's various secrets—and of course I didn't want her to tell me whether I was right or wrong.

I'm having that sort of experience again with Rendell's new novel Thirteen Steps Down. Rendell can really portray some dark characters, and this book is a sort of stalkers' roundelay: a very creepy young man is stalking a supermodel, who pines away for her next-door neighbor, while the first stalker's landlady is trying to resume a "relationship" with a mere aquaintance from fifty years ago. I'm about two-thirds of the way through, and I can't wait to see what happens next. Rendell is both a master plotter and a brilliant portrayer of character, and I highly recommend this new book, as well as her many other titles, including those written under the name of Barbara Vine. Rendell/Vine has one other great ability—she can plant a secret in a novel that's right in front of you that you just can't see for looking. For me, that's the hallmark of a great mystery writer.

-Joe Murphy, Head Book Buyer