FFB: A JUDGMENT IN STONE, RUTH RENDELL

 

I think I have probably read all of Rendell and seldom been let down. And that is quite a lot of books. This may be her best (imho). 

"Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write." That is the first line and the boiling center of this thoroughly frightening novel. Eunice and her religion fanatic friend, Joan, spur each other on and almost all of it stems from Eunice"s illiteracy. How even the sight of books terrifies her and fills her with hate. It's hard to imagine someone could finish even a few years of school without getting found out, but you still hear such stories from time to time. The cleverness of fooling people speaks to a certain kind of intelligence. So illiteracy must be partly something else.