i read the book and the customer reviews. what is true: rendell IS the best, what is also true: this one is not one of her best books. but it's still so much better than a lot of stuff that finds a publisher these days.
as always in her novels (as in life)- there are characters in it you don't actually like. that's one of her specialties: you're not supposed to like them, but to understand their actions and see life through their eyes. that's rendell's greatest achievement.
as for the ghost-plot: this is definetely not a supernatural thriller. it's about what joyce carol oates describes as "states of mind are real enough". the whole book is about how one reality sometimes is not enough. the jerry-character only becomes real seen through the eyes of all his women.
there's two subplots i favoured: the one about zillah and her marriage to jims, and the couple with eating disorders. in the latter, rendell again manages to portray that what you see (and maybe consider gross) is not what you get.
appearances (and apparitions) often lead you in the wrong direction.
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