From: danny@cs.su.oz.au (Danny Yee)
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 1995 21:16:34 +1000
Subject: Book Review - Talking to Strange Men

     title: Talking to Strange Men
        by: Ruth Rendell
 publisher: Pantheon Books 1987
  subjects: detective fiction
     other: 280 pages

Ruth Rendell's novels (whether writing as Ruth Rendell or as Barbara
Vine) are rather variable in quality.  _Talking to Strange Men_ ranks
with _Asta's Book_ as one of my favourites.  Though it has some mystery
elements, it is more a psychological novel than a detective story, with
obsession in various forms as a theme: the sexual obsessions of adults;
the obsession children bring to their games; even the oddity of a man
obsessed with a pet myna bird.  There are two strands to the plot: in
one rival groups of school children are playing an involved game of
espionage; in the other an abandoned husband is struggling to rebuild
his life.  When the two intersect -- when one of the adults starts
modifying the childrens' secret messages -- things come to a climax for
two of the characters.  Though this may sound a bit fanciful, the plot
is actually quite credible, and the psychological portrayal of the
central characters is completely convincing.  As a result _Talking to
Strange Men_ is free from the feeling of contrivance that spoils some of
Rendell's novels.

--

%T	Talking to Strange Men
%A	Ruth Rendell
%I	Pantheon Books 
%C	New York
%D	1987
%O	hardcover
%G	ISBN 0-394-56324-7
%P	280pp
%K	detective fiction

Danny Yee (danny@cs.su.oz.au)
3 January 1995

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