Michael ‘Mix’ Cellini is a loner, so obsessed with the serial killer
John Reginald Christie that he deliberately chooses to live in the vicinity of
10 Rillington Place, the house where the notorious murderer killed and buried his victims. He’s obsessed too, with the number thirteen and with local resident and supermodel Nerissa Nash, spending hours secretly planning their ‘future’ together. His landlady is octogenarian spinster Gwendolen Chawcer, also a loner, who prefers the company of her many books to that of her fellow human beings. Each of these unlikeable characters, poles apart in so many ways, inhabit their own private fantasy world, seemingly detached from reality.
Once again, Ruth Rendell’s characterisation is superb, giving a chilling insight into the mind of the classic stalker, whilst carefully building up the level of suspense, and preparing the ground for the inevitable shocking event, which, when it comes, will take even the most seasoned reader of psychological thrillers by surprise. Likewise, the reader is drawn into the story by Rendell’s excellent descriptions of the eerie old house with its grime-encrusted windows and hanging cobwebs, and her portrait of lonely anonymity in an otherwise bustling London is palpably accurate.
Thirteen Steps Down is a macabre and tense tale, with hints of the supernatural, and one can almost forgive the silliness of the plot’s direction late on in the book – an angle which would have been best left to the reader’s imagination, perhaps – but on the whole, it’s an enormously compelling thriller, one which will make you think twice about striking up a conversation with a stranger. Read it and remember to lock your doors.