The Crocodile Bird

By: Ruth Rendell

Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson

Eve and Liza, Mother and Daughter, live a quiet life in their remote home; a rustic gatehouse of a country mansion. At first glance their lives appear quite ordinary, except that Liza has almost no knowledge of the outside world, has never played with a child her own age and has witnessed her mother commit murder, on multiple occasions.

Eve and Liza, Mother and Daughter, live a quiet life in their remote home; a rustic gatehouse of a country mansion. At first glance their lives appear quite ordinary, except that Liza has almost no knowledge of the outside world, has never played with a child her own age and has witnessed her mother commit murder, on multiple occasions. Now, as the police come searching for a missing man, they must vacate their secluded home, shattering Liza’s sheltered world. With 100 pounds and her secret lover, Liza gradually learns about the world, her mother’s tale of betrayal, desire and obsession and just how like mother, like daughter she really is.

©1993 Ruth Rendell (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Gripping

Liza, a young girl of sixteen must flee from her secluded home, the gatehouse of a great mansion, to avoid being questioned by the police about a crime that her mother Eve has just committed. She makes her way to her lover and proceeds to tell him, in the style of The Arabian Nights, the story of how she came to be in this situation, in the process revealing a life story full of intrigue and horror. Until then, Eve had tried her best to shield Liza from the world and all it's modern amenities, and most of what Liza knows about life is gleaned from the 19th century books available in the mansion. Liza looks just like Eve, and must find out whether she is a an exact copy of her mother in deed as well as in looks, or whether she can exercise her own free will. I found this tale quite gripping, enough so to include it among my favourite reads of the year, and the narration by Juliet Stephenson was of course excellent.

Long lost favourite .

Ruth Rendell was one of my favourite authors some 40 years ago. I’m so happy to have come across her again . I couldn’t put this book down and loved every word of it.