The Keys to the Street

Starred review from July 29, 1996
In a story that commands--and fully rewards--intense engagement from its readers, Rendell (The Crocodile Bird; Simisola) once again proves an astute, intense observer of physical and psychological detail, demonstrating that we are surrounded by people we don't see and fail to appreciate the ways in which intimates and strangers are connected to us. Housesitting in a posh home near London's Regent's Park lets Mary Jago separate from her abusive and persistent lover, whose behavior has worsened since she decided to donate bone marrow to save the life of an anonymous recipient. When she meets Leo Nash, the marrow recipient, she enters a heady courtship with the stranger whose very being is now linked to hers. While she does notice Bean, the strange little man who works as a dog walker and behaves like a ``superior upper servant'' in an old film, and she cheerfully finds kind words for Roman Ashton, one of the area's many ``dossers,'' or street people, Mary little suspects how complex their histories are, what their fears and schemes might be or what they notice in return. Likewise, she is sheltered from the fears of the area's homeless as one after another is killed and then impaled on the spikes of park railings. When a crack is exposed in the edifice of Mary's new and happy life, the death lurking beneath it may be something else she never fully comprehends. With this meticulously crafted work, Rendell reminds us how complex, interconnected and fragile modern life is.

May 15, 1996
Someone is murdering the homeless of Regents Park by impalement, so why is Mary seeking solace in their company?

March 1, 1997
YA-Rendell is again in top form in this suspenseful tale of a 30-year-old woman housesitting in a posh section of London. Mary Jago is unassuming, quiet, loath to speak up or out even in her own defense-almost mousy. She has finally worked up the courage to break up with the abusive boyfriend with whom she lives and is about to make contact with the young man to whom she donated bone marrow some months earlier. While this plot is developing, readers meet some less savory characters inhabiting the neighborhood, including a crack addict and some of his contacts and a homeless man whose mysterious past is only gradually made apparent. Mary falls in love with the bone-marrow recipient and seems to be living in an almost dreamlike state until her grandmother dies and leaves her a great deal of money, thus changing her life in ways Mary could not have dreamed. The well-drawn psychological profiles of a rather large cast and the ways in which their lives converge almost overshadow the riddle of the bodies of homeless men periodically found impaled on the fence railings of a grand park in the area. Rendell's themes, that things are seldom what they seem, and that we all go through life with blinders on, hardly understanding or even seeing what is going on around us, are extremely well executed.-Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VA

Starred review from August 1, 1996
Mary Jago is a gentle, passive, unselfish young woman. Her fiancesometimes beats her, and other people often take advantage of her sweet nature. She willingly donates her bone marrow to an anonymous leukemia victim. Months later, the recipient gratefully contacts her. Once she meets Leo, Mary experiences an odd sensation that she and he are magically linked and inevitably finds herself falling in love with this gentle, mysterious man. But nothing is as it seems. Other events and people in Mary's life are curiously intertwined in ways that will touch her dramatically. A series of brutal killings, with homeless men as victims; a man recovering from the tragic death of his family; a cruel little man who walks Mary's dog; a drug addict with a desperate and deadly habit; the death of Mary's grandmother--each of these events plays a role in an end-of-the-story climax that is at once tragic, shocking, satisfying, and hopeful. Without a doubt, Rendell ranks with today's finest writers, and this book is one of her best, examining the intricate and complex relationships between people, the possibilities and influences of good and evil in each life, the odd quirks of human nature, and the darker side of the human soul. Superbly written and beautifully constructed, the story is unique, powerful, and provocative. ((Reviewed Aug. 1996))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1996, American Library Association.)