The Chimney Sweeper's Boy

The Chimney Sweeper's Boy (1998) is a crime/mystery novel by Barbara Vine, pseudonym of British author Ruth Rendell.[1]

The Chimney Sweeper's Boy
AuthorBarbara Vine (Ruth Rendell)
LanguageEnglish
GenreCrime / Mystery novel
PublisherViking (UK)
Harmony (US)
Publication date
26 March 1998
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint/Audiobook
Pages352 (hardback)
ISBN0-670-87927-4
OCLC40980304
823/.914 21
LC ClassPR6068.E63 C47 1998c
Preceded byThe Brimstone Wedding 
Followed byGrasshopper 

Plot summary

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When successful author Gerald Candless dies of a sudden heart attack, his eldest daughter Sarah is approached by her father's publisher with a view to writing a biography about his life. Sarah embarks on the memoir but soon discovers that her perfect father was not all he appeared to be, and that in fact he wasn't Gerald Candless at all.

Reception

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Kirkus Reviews called the novel a "slow-moving, richly textured suspenser" and wrote that it "shows Vine at her most weblike".[2] The Virginia Quarterly Review stated: "Reminiscent of Mary Gordon's memoir about her search for the reality of her writer father, this is a superb work of fiction."[3]Library Journal called the audiobook an "entertaining listening experience in the low-violence mystery/suspense genre."[4]

References

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  1. ^ Vine, Barbara (26 March 1998). The Chimney Sweeper's Boy (First; hardback ed.). United Kingdom: Viking (UK)/Harmony (US). ISBN 0-670-87927-4.
  2. ^ "THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER'S BOY". Kirkus Reviews. 15 March 1998. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  3. ^ "The Chimney Sweeper's Boy". Virginia Quarterly Review. Winter 1999. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
  4. ^ "The Chimney Sweeper's Boy". Library Journal. 1 September 1998. Retrieved 20 September 2024.