A Fitting Finale: Ruth Rendell’s Dark Corners

Abstract

The paper provides an analysis of crime writer Ruth Rendell’s last, posthumously published novel, Dark Corners. It compares and contrasts the work to the author’s previous stand-alone psychological thrillers, examining prevailing themes and motifs, typical settings, principal characters, plotlines and resolutions, as well as tone and style of writing. Human weaknesses and hypocrisies, delusional obsessions and compulsive murderous urges are dealt with, as is the role of social circumstances, interpersonal relations and modern-day fads in determining various aberrations from the generally accepted norms of human behaviour. The writer’s use of biting irony and black humour in the investigation of this dark subject matter is also commented upon. The study establishes that, with this book, Rendell – consciously or not – provides readers with a thorough recapitulation of her thematic and moral concerns in the non-series strand that she herself claimed to prefer, thus delivering a fitting finale to her literary career of over five decades.