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

Plot summary

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

Kirkus Reviews called the novel a "slow-moving, richly textured suspenser" and wrote that it "shows Vine at her most weblike". 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."Library Journal called the audiobook an "entertaining listening experience in the low-violence mystery/suspense genre."

References

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.

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• 1998 British novels
• Novels by Ruth Rendell
• Works published under a pseudonym
• Novels about writers
• Viking Press books
• Harmony Books books
• 1990s crime novel stubs