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  • The Girl Next Door

  • By: Ruth Rendell
  • Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
  • Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

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The Girl Next Door

By: Ruth Rendell
Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
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Publisher's Summary

In the waning months of the Second World War, a group of children discover an earthen tunnel in their neighbourhood outside London. Throughout the summer of 1944 - until one father forbids it - the subterranean space becomes their 'secret garden', where the friends play games and tell stories.

Six decades later, beneath a house on the same land, construction workers uncover a tin box containing two skeletal hands, one male and one female. As the discovery makes national news, the friends come together once again, to recall their days in the tunnel for the detective investigating the case. Is the truth buried among these aging friends and their memories?

This impromptu reunion causes long-simmering feelings to bubble to the surface. Alan, stuck in a passionless marriage, begins flirting with Daphne, a glamorous widow. Michael considers contacting his estranged father, who sent Michael to live with an aunt after his mother vanished in 1944. Lewis begins remembering details about his Uncle James, an army private who once accompanied the children into the tunnels, and who later disappeared.

In The Girl Next Door Rendell brilliantly shatters the assumptions about age, showing that the choices people make - and the emotions behind them - remain as potent in late life as they were in youth.

©2014 Ruth Rendell (P)2014 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic Reviews

"Ruth Rendell is unequivocally the most brilliant mystery writer of our time. She magnificently triumphs in a style that is uniquely hers." (Patricia Cornwell)
"Probably the greatest living crime writer in the world." (Ian Rankin)
"Ruth Rendell has raised the game of the crime novel in this country through the sheer quality of her writing." (Peter James, International bestselling crime thriller novelist)

What listeners say about The Girl Next Door

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Captivating read

I thoroughly enjoyed being taken into the lives of these people and hearing the mystery of the hands. Very well written and narrated

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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A slow burner

The peaks and troughs of this book intrigued me. Many aspects for older lively people rang true for me especially in the baby boomer era. Enjoyed this book, I can always tell if it has captured my attention if I sit in the car out the front of the house waiting for the chapter to finish.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.