Book #4 Tigerlily's Orchids

Book #4

Tigerlily's Orchids, by Ruth Rendell

Having read Portobello in December, I wanted to read another of Ruth Rendell's books.  She's won numerous awards, including three Edgars, the highest accolade from Mystery Writers of America, as well as three Gold Daggers, a Silver Dagger, and a Diamond Dagger for outstanding contribution to the genre from England's prestigious Crime Writer's Association.  A member of the House of Lords, she lives in London.

Tigerlily's Orchids

When Stuart Font decides to throw a housewarming party in his new flat, he invites all the people in his building -- three flippant young girls, a lonely spinster, a man with a passion for classical history, and a woman determined to drink herself to death.  After some deliberation, he even includes the unpleasant caretaker and his wife. He considers inviting a few other friends, but he definitely does not want his lover, Claudia, in attendance, as he would also have to invite her lawyer husband.  As it turns out, the party will be one everyone remembers.

Living in a town house opposite Stuart's building, in reclusive isolation, is a young, beautiful Asian woman known as Tigerlily.  As though from some strange urban fairy tale, she emerges infrequently to exert a terrible spell.  And Stuart's parents, always worried about their handsome, hopelessly naive, and undermotivated son, have even more cause for concern.

Darkly humorous, piercingly insightful about human behavior, Ruth Rendell, whom People magazine calls "one of the remarkable novelists of her generation," has created an extraordinarily compelling story of our lives and crimes.