Product Description

Ivor Tesham is a handsome, single, young member of Parliament whose political star is on the rise. When he meets a woman in a chance encounter–a beautiful, leggy, married woman named Hebe–the two become lovers obsessed with their trysts, spiced up by what the newspapers like to call “adventure sex.”

It’s the dress-up and role-play that inspire Ivor to create a surprise birthday present for his beloved that involves a curbside kidnapping. It’s all intended as mock-dangerous foreplay, but then things take a dark turn.

After things go horribly wrong, Ivor begins to receive anonymous letters that reveal astonishingly specific details about the affair and its aftermath. Somehow he must keep his role from being uncovered–and his political future from being destroyed by scandal.

Like a heretic on the inquisitor’s rack, Ivor is not to be spared the exquisitely slow and tortuous unfolding of events, as hints, nuances, and small revelations lay his darkest secrets hideously bare for all the world to see.

The Birthday Present is a deft, insightful, and compulsively readable exploration of obsessive desire–and the dark twists of fate that can shake the lives of even those most insulated by privilege, sophistication, and power.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75427 in Books
• Published on: 2009-03-10
• Released on: 2009-03-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.25" h x 6.25" w x 9.65" l, 1.34 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780307451989
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Carolyn See Barbara Vine is the pen name of Ruth Rendell, it's announced clearly here, and I admit I don't quite understand why Ruth Rendell would want to be Barbara Vine, since she seems to be doing just fine as Ruth Rendell, but there it is. Under either name, she's what you'd have to call -- cliche coming up! -- a consummate professional. Within the first five pages of "The Birthday Present," you know you're in the hands of a mystery/thriller writer who's in perfect control of her material. In addition to that fabulous control, Rendell/Vine maintains a matronly, almost magisterial tone that lends unexpected dignity to the goriest, creepiest material. It is her trademark. The story here is told by Rob Delgado, who, despite the slightly exotic quality of his Spanish last name, has been brought up in an upper-middle-class environment in a picturesque village close to London, has been to all the right schools and works as an accountant for a very wealthy set of London clients. His brother-in-law, Ivor Tesham, has also done well for himself. He's an MP in the Conservative Party who entertains the highest ambitions. In Fitzgeraldian terms, Rob is Nick Carraway to Ivor's Gatsby. It is through Rob's sympathetic yet objective eyes that we see Ivor's rise and -- it's given away in the first few pages -- his inevitable fall. Rob is married to Iris, Ivor's sister. He is a family man. The loves of his life are his children. Infidelity would be inconceivable for him; the high point of his young adult life is to take his firstborn daughter for a walk in a park, with her safely strapped to his heart in a Snugli. Ivor is another sort of Brit altogether: an incorrigible womanizer, an adventurer. He hates the thought of being tied down -- except in the literal sense by a slut with a whip and boots. Marriage seems entirely out of the question for him; or, rather, it's so far down the road that it may look something like death. He may have to do it some day, for political reasons, but right now he's preoccupied with his intense affair with Hebe. Hebe, who is blond, slim and radically beautiful, shares Ivor's tastes in sex, but she lives a desperately pokey life in a grim little suburb, with a relatively poor husband and a little boy whom she neglects. She's a modern Madame Bovary, dying of boredom and what she perceives as a lack of the good life. When she meets Ivor at one of her husband's charity functions, she clamps her jaws down on the self-regarding MP like a gila monster. She doesn't want marriage, far from it. She wants studded dog-collars and laced thigh-high boots and a nice collection of heaven-knows-what kind of weird sex baubles. Her only problem? Who will provide the alibi for the afternoons and evenings she takes off to be with Ivor? Her alibi lady turns out to be Jane, a plain little nothing of a friend whom Hebe keeps around as a foil for her own astonishing beauty. We hear the other half of this story from Jane, told in a series of diaries. Jane is a familiar character in English novels, the neglected governess or the spinster from Dickens. Needless to say, she burns with jealousy and grievance, hating her life across the board -- beginning with her mother, ending with Hebe and the reckless, handsome Conservative MP, Ivor Tesham. All this comes out, beautifully calibrated, within the first 10th of the book. Then, as a "birthday present," Ivor arranges for Hebe to be kidnapped (with her full consent, of course) by a couple of masked thugs, bound, gagged, cuffed and delivered to Rob and Iris's house, where Ivor and Hebe will indulge in an evening of thoroughly British sadomasochistic sex. (Despite their respectability, Iris and Rob have said yes to Ivor's request for the loan of their house because -- well, how could they not? And how could they be aware of the hideous ramifications of this evening?) Hebe is duly kidnapped by the two thugs, one of whom runs a red light during the abduction. One thug and Hebe are killed. The other thug lingers in a coma. There's an immediate media mix-up about the crime. Why would anyone want to kidnap an obscure housewife with a poor husband who wouldn't be able to pay a ransom? The police settle upon another, more glamorous blonde as the intended victim; she turns out to be a red herring, and the cops are left at a dead end. Now is the time for Ivor to step forward and clear things up, but of course he doesn't. Among other things, it would be an affront to his English gentleman's sense of dignity. And by taking this course of action, he sets in motion another very British theme: how the mighty must fall. Again, we're told that Ivor comes to a bad end on the second page: "Mention his name and most people will say, 'Who?' while the rest think for a bit and ask if he wasn't 'the one who got involved in all that sleaze back in whenever it was . . .' " It takes a few hundred pages more to see exactly what happens to Ivor, the car-accident people, Rob and Iris, the aggrieved Jane and all the children. Despite its soft-porn highlights, the author addresses this material as if she were Winston Churchill's nanny. Her tone in every line is maternal, soothing, proper. You really do feel cradled. You can keep on reading this with tranquillity even as your plane lurches down out of the sky. Book Reviews This Sunday in Outlook: Between Barack and a hard place. Stealing MySpace. Redlining and an earlier credit crunch. The great Indian migration. Confessions of an alien hunter.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
In her newest Barbara Vine novel, Rendell has crafted a subtly sordid tale studded with imaginative plot twists and black humor. Though she reveals Tesham’s eventual downfall within the first few pages, Rendell builds a great deal of tension into her complex, tightly constructed plot, and her descriptions of Tesham’s sexual adventures, though accurate, are never lurid. Interestingly, most British critics panned the novel—a possible reaction to the liberal Rendell’s political leanings or a jaded familiarity with the national events framing the plot. However, American critics praised The Birthday Present, calling it “one of [Rendell’s] best literary excursions” to date (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Readers in search of a smart, fast-paced thriller by an expert storyteller will appreciate Vine’s latest.
Copyright 2009 Bookmarks Publishing LLC

From Booklist
Vine, the pen name of Ruth Rendell (whose Reginald Wexford mysteries are among the best of contemporary British procedurals), turns in another involving stand-alone that explores the twists and turns of human behavior. Flipping between the perspectives of two unacquainted narrators, she chronicles the rise and fall of a self-indulgent British politician, whose career collapses, in part, because of a tragic stroke of bad luck. Ivor Tesham, a rising star in John Major’s liberal party, is shocked when he learns about the death of his mistress, killed in a car accident while on her way to him, bound and blindfolded, as the willing victim of a faux kidnapping meant to set the stage for a birthday gift of adventurous sex. Fearing public censure, Tesham stays quiet, despite the advice from his sister and brother-in-law. As might be expected, his selfish decision gradually ripples outward, leading to unexpected consequences not only for himself but also for the other vicitims of the accident—especially the woman’s troubled friend. As with her other psychological thrillers, Vine writes with calm elegance, slowly unravelling the story while constructing a strong sense of place, politics, and social class to support her players. It’s the very ordinariness of her characters and the randomness of their lives that create the drama here. --Stephanie Zvirin

Customer Reviews

"I just think you ought to be careful."
Writing as Barbara Vine, Ruth Rendell's "The Birthday Present" is an extended flashback in which two narrators look back at a sordid incident and its tragic aftermath. Ivor Tesham, a handsome and ambitious graduate of Eton and Oxford, becomes a Tory MP at thirty-one and seems destined for political stardom. However, his self-centeredness and desire for sexual excitement propel him to take foolish risks, and when things go terribly wrong, he becomes an emotional wreck. Ivor's cautionary tale is narrated by Rob, an accountant and Ivor's staid brother-in-law, and Jane Atherton, the dowdy and resentful best friend of Ivor's married mistress, a beautiful twenty-seven year old named Hebe Furnal who shares her lover's kinky tastes.

Rob and his wife, Iris, Ivor's sister, serve as a mini-Greek chorus. Although they bear some blame for enabling Ivor to carry out an imprudent scheme, no one could have foreseen how fate would turn a sick charade into a catastrophe. Instead of presenting the facts in a linear manner, Rendell allows Rob and Jane to report their version of events with their biases intact, forcing us to figure out who did what to whom and why. Rendell uses black humor and complex plot machinations to shine a spotlight on human frailties, with an emphasis on obsession, greed, and egotism. Ivor jeopardizes his career and reputation for the sake of a tawdry adventure; Hebe puts her marriage and her son's welfare at risk to carry on a clandestine liaison with an attractive and wealthy man. Jane Atherton is a homely and dejected woman, one of a "faceless tribe" who "go to bed alone and get up alone." She is a perpetual victim whose low-paying job, manipulative and nagging mother, and solitary existence fill her with bitterness and self-pity.

"The Birthday Present" is laced with surprises and last-minute plot twists. Unlike other works by this author that are almost painfully misanthropic, this book encourages us to understand and feel compassion for the characters, most of whom want a better life for themselves and someone with whom to share it. It is too bad, she implies, that so many of us have a penchant for self-destruction. It is almost as if we are tempted to stand on a cliff just to see how close we can come to the edge without falling off. Even if we play by the rules and try to do the right thing, however, life can be horribly unfair. "The Birthday Present" is an original, edgy, and deliciously ironic mystery in which Rendell tempers her usual cynicism with a welcome dose of empathy.

Recommended, with reservations
I do not think this is Barbara Vine/ Ruth Rendell's best book, and I have read all of them. But I am giving this 5 stars, because even a flawed work from her is usually far better than most mystery suspense novels out there. This is no exception, and it is a fast-paced, suspense-filled story.

Brief summary, no spoilers:

The setting is London, in the early 1990s, just at the end of Margaret Thatcher's reign as Prime Minister. The story tells the tale of Ivor Tesham, a young member of Parliament who had ambitions to rise much higher. He is having an affair with a married woman, and decides to plan a "surprise" for her birthday.

Needless to say, it goes wrong. And that starts a series of events that results in the destruction of many lives.

One of the things I love about any Barbara Vine/Ruth Rendell novel is that you know you are in for a page-turner, and this book is no exception. She is also the best author I've ever read in describing damaged, or eccentric characters, or those with obsessive compulsions, delusions, or mental defect of all sorts. And again, this novel doesn't disappoint in that regard.

So my problems with the story? Without giving away any spoilers - I was riveted throughout most of the story, and I thought that the sense of impending doom and disaster was palpable. It seemed like we were all set up for a spectacular finish - and indeed, this author has come up with some of the great finales and twists of all time.

But not here, in my opinion. Saying this, I still recommend this book. It is a pager-turner, and has the great classic bizarre cast of Barbara Vine characters. If you are in any kind of a reading slump, this is as good as any of her books to get you going again.

So, recommended. But if you've never read her before, I recommend starting with some of my favorites - like A Sight for Sore Eyes, Or Adam and Eve and Pinch Me under her real name, Ruth Rendell. Or Anna's Book or No Night is Too Long under the Barbara Vine pseudonym.

far from her best
I am a big, big fan of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine and have read and enjoyed about 3/4 of her books. This one is almost a stinker. Right from the first page we are bombarded by names of people we know nothing of, too many names to remember, let alone care about. The writing is ponderous and heavy with foreshadowing that gets really annoying. And worst of all, I guessed what was going to happen and even who killed "the alibi lady," not a good thing in a mystery. I do hope Rendell/Vine will give us an excellent read next time as she has so often before.