A DARK ADAPTED EYE was the first of the novels written as Barbara Vine and was very different to the Wexford novels, although it showed many similarities in style to the stand alone novels she had already published.So why did Rendell write as Barbara Vine? I believe she was just too prolific as a writer, writing at least two novels every 3 years, perhaps leading buyers to believe that she was writing pot boilers. I think later Rendell novels actually have Vine overtones the police procedurals have more psychological explorations, more description of why characters have acted as they did. This is one of those books that clearly show how Ruth Rendell becomes a different writer when she uses the Barbara Vine pseudonym, at least in the early days. Intelligent, crafty, and not quite predictable. If I hadn't drawn the wrong conclusion from that, expecting to whip through it in a sitting or two, I'd have enjoyed it more right from the start. It is deceptively 'short'-looking in that thin hardcover format so many mystery book club books were once published in. I began to enjoy the book about one-third of the way in, once I got the hang of how the story was being told and immersed myself in it. The reader, however, not being in the know, must make multiple deductions as the story unfolds, not the least of which is the identity of Vera's murder victim. Then the family history begins to be revealed, with characters mentioned by name as though in conversation with someone who knows them all and understands their relationships to one another. We begin by learning that the narrator's sister, Vera, has been hanged for murder, a startling enough fact by itself. Dense, packed with detail about a very dysfunctional family and the many tangled webs woven by its members, but with essential facts about the central mystery parceled out in a sometimes maddeningly piecemeal fashion. This was very good, though not a fast read for me.

A dark adapted eye book