Ruth Rendell - Dark Corners

I was late in discovering mystery/crime writer Ruth Rendell, a Brit who has written dozens of books. She passed away last year and this is her last book.

The prose is seductive and pulls you in.  The plot(s) are mostly believable.  The anguish of the protagonist is palpable.  The only problem is that I always like a twist at the end.  No twist comes in this book.  The end is quiet and so the story ends with a soft thud.

Blackmail and murder.  Who wouldn't like a story around this theme?  :)  With the psychological trauma of Carl Martin the story reminds me of Poe's Telltale Heart.  A man is being blackmailed and he kills his blackmailer and suffers the psychological angst of a man pushed to murder.  That's the essence of the story.

Some of the details in this tale seem superfluous.  There is retiree Tom who rides London's busses all day just to have something to do.  His hobby becomes live-saving when he removes a bag with a bomb from a bus that saves lives.  There is the kidnapping of Lizzie.  We never find out for sure what that is about.