As in the superb Make Death Love Me (1979), Britain's queen of dark
irony is again doing nice tricks with parallel, interlocking plots
- but here, though Rendell is never less than swiftly readable, the
fabrication doesn't quite soar: the characters are an unlikable
crew; the balance between the two halves of the story is lopsided;
and, most crucially, the reliance on contrivance or coincidence
(which almost marred Make Death Love Me) pretty near shatters the
narrative spell. Thirtyish, rather priggish (perhaps latently
homosexual) accountant Martin Urban has secretly won a small
fortune in the football pools, thanks to his old acquaintance,
journalist Tim. But instead of sharing the loot with Tim, Martin
decides to play benefactor to five needy souls caught in London's
dreadful housing shortage. This doesn't turn out to be so easy,
however. Moreover, Martin gets distracted by the arrival in his
life of beautiful, semi-mysterious Francesca - a married woman
(with a child) whom he is soon intently trying to woo away from her
(never-seen) husband. But what Martin doesn't know is that sneaky
faker Francesca is really Tim's girlfriend; they're out for nasty
revenge, out to get some of the money that Martin declined to share
with Tim. And just about the time that Martin starts to suspect
something fishy with Francesca, he happens to select mad old Mrs.
Finn (his mother's former charwoman) as one of his five lucky
charity cases. So what happens when Martin starts offering money to
Mrs. F.'s son - a childlike psychotic who's recently begun a career
as a mystical-minded hit man? That's right: total misunderstanding
- which, combined with a coincidence or two, ends up with crazy,
creepy Finn zeroing in on naughty Francesca. . . A neat set of
premises, a fine sense of place, a witty fugue on the themes of
greed and real estate - modestly entertaining if read as a
not-quite-for-real black comedy. But Rendell (whose
uncharacteristic sloppiness here includes such gaucheries as
"paranoidly") has made only a half-successful chiller out of her
inspired plot notions this time around, a wily tale with middling
credibility and minimal emotional grab. (Kirkus Reviews)
Martin Urban is a quiet bachelor with a comfortable life, free of
worry and distractions. When he unexpectedly comes into a small
fortune, he decides to use his newfound wealth to help out those in
need. Finn also leads a quiet life, and comes into a little money
of his own. Normally, their paths would never have crossed. But
Martin's ideas about who should benefit from his charitable
impulses yield some unexpected results, and soon the good
intentions of the one become fatally entangled with the mercenary
nature of the other. In the Lake of Darkness, Ruth Rendell takes
the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished to a startling,
haunting conclusion.
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