This is by Ruth Rendell (1930-2015); it was first published in 1971; and my audio-version was read absolutely superbly by Nicky Henson (1945-2019). In the right hands -- his -- this is another book that just clamours to be listened to (especially if you have a long bus journey in the offing). Just thinking back to the story, I can hear again the high-pitched whine of Maud Kinaway (widowed mother of Vera), and the squishy Cockney of Stanley Manning (Vera's husband, and therefore Maud's son-in-law), and the gently resigned tones of poor Vera.

It's a while since I've read anything by Rendell, but I remember her talent for psychological novels, in which interesting characters move across a sinister, brooding background.

One Across, Two Down derives its title from Stanley's passion for cryptic crossword puzzles. This hobby, and maybe his gardening, are the only things that lend Stanley any trace of likeability. Otherwise, he is a feckless, self-pitying, short-tempered bludger.

Maud lives with her daughter and son-in-law at 61 Lanchester Road, Croughton, in the northern suburbs of London. It's a two-storeyed, end-of-terrace, red-brick house, built in 1906. There must be hundreds of thousands of such houses in England.


Not London, but red brick

Maud is pretty much as annoying as Stanley, and they needle each other constantly. We soon doubt whether Stanley would ever have made anything of himself, but certainly his task has not been facilitated by the venomous dislike, freely expressed, of his mother-in-law, who is doing her level best to persuade Vera to divorce him, and come and join her in a refined little house somewhere nicer.

Her barely contained hatred goes back many years. Vera, Maud had hoped, would marry respectable James Horton, destined for a career at the bank. But oh no, Vera, bored by poor James, is dazzled by the shiftless and fun-loving Stanley. Before long she's pregnant; they marry, of course; and then Vera has a miscarriage... If only we'd waited, Maud repines, while her daughter is still in hospital recovering...

Adding fuel to the fire now is the fact that Maud is a wealthy woman. As Stanley can't wait to get his hands on her loot, he decides to help the situation along a little.

It would be unfair to give any plot details away. Suffice it to say that things don't turn out quite as he planned. Stanley is not an amiable character, but he doesn't actually murder Maud, and you can't help but feel a little sorry for him as he gets further and further out of his depth in convolutions of his own making. By the end he's suffering from a terrible eye twitch, and his mind is filled night and day by hordes of irrepressible crossword clues.

The person you feel most sorry for is Vera, who has soldiered on for years in her dull job at the dry-cleaner's, and spends her leisure hours caught between the two reprobates she shares her house with. But she asserts herself by the end, and we close with some hope that things will take a turn for the better in her case.

The reader/listener knows upfront what happens to Maud. Which is more than anyone else will know by the end. The little stunt Stanley pulled has blinded everyone else to the truth, and his situation at the close means he's unable to put the record straight. More broadly, not KNOWING is a big theme of this book. Maud, for example, goes to her grave not knowing a key fact about her dead husband. Life is cryptic, after all...

Because you don't have to guess whodunit (since you know), what you listen for is the twisty little psychological plot, and the social detail. I'm guessing it was set in the late 1960s. We have Vera looking forward to her mother's money (in the nicest possible way, now that she is already dead), so that she can buy a fridge (I remember the exciting advent of our family's first fridge in approximately the same era).

The other thing this book offers is humour. Surprisingly, perhaps, given its dark story and unlikeable characters. But the text is often funny, and the narrator did full justice to that element too.

A great listen, then, and you don't need to be on a bus to enjoy it.