This book differs from the other Rendell books I read. The novel studies several characters whose lives become intertwined because they live on or near or visit Portobello Road. One character is a middle-aged man addicted to a candy; his fiancée is a doctor who becomes a personal physician to a man we meet because he becomes injured on the Portobello Road. A young thief who loves a girl he assaulted and whose relative belongs to a cult-like church also appears. The action is slow. The flawed characters often express themselves in peculiar manners. While it is not my favorite Rendell book, I didn't hate it. I listened to the audiobook read by Tim Curry. ( )

This audiobook was difficult to get through, because it was so bland and boring. The only thing that kept me coming back at all was because Tim Curry (THE Tim Curry) is the narrator of this novel in audiobook form. It wasn’t really a mystery, just a view into some English people’s lives that lived off the Portobello road, in Notting Hill.
I didn’t think this novel was “wonderfully complex tour de force”, nor did I think it “featuring a dazzling depiction of one of London's most intriguing neighborhoods—and the dangers beneath its newly posh veneer”, like my library’s description sells it as.
Curry’s plummy tones kept me coming back to this novel, and a vague hope for an HEA, even though I couldn’t be bothered to care about a single character. (Seriously, a couple of his impressions were hilarious!). But that’s about it.
3 stars, and not really recommended to anyone, unless you need help sleeping at night. ( )

This was an OK read but a little contrived and scattered. Eugene's "addiction" was pretty ridiculous. There are certainly better books out there. ( )

strange mystery many dysfunctional people set in London's Rd — eating sweet addiction

On a shopping trip, Eugene Wren came across an envelope containing money. Rather than report the matter to the police, he wrote a note and stuck it up on lamppost near his house: found in Chepstow Villas, a sum of money between 80 and 160 pounds. Anyone who has lost such a sum should apply to the phone number below.

I enjoyed this examination of obsession in many forms and how the fixation of each character dovetailed with the others. The setting is district of Portobello and its varied residents. I loved the tongue-in-cheek humour. In the new-found dignity of Portobello elite, the pub is to be renamed because no one knows who The Earl of Lonsdale was. The favoured new name is The Slug and Lettuce. This story with its widely diverse characters in an iconic neighbourhood is possibly my favourite Rendell. ( )