A review by rmardel
The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine

4.0

Not my favorite of Barbara Vine's books, its odd detached style reminded me more of the author's voice in her more popular mystery guise as Ruth Rendell. Now I like Vine's novels and I enjoy Rendell although in a completely different way. Truthfully, it took me a little to accept this new novel as it is a bit of a departure from the author's previous novels under either name. I suppose it is a bit of a disappointment if one is expecting a typical Barbara Vine book, or even a Ruth Rendell and yet, once I settled into the pace of the book and the voices of its narrators, I found it quite compelling and beautifully written, as usual. I find it to be a very unsettling and even disturbing book, even more disturbing because it seems so bland. In usual Vine fashion, the characters one would think one would most like are the ones that one despises and those that seem, on the surface, the most shallow and callous, are the ones for which one feels the most sympathy.

I think this book is one that may at first seem a disappointment if one is looking for a familiar voice, but which also might be the one most likely to be re-read.