Like a modern-day Scheherazade, young Liza Beck tells her story over a span of nights and in the process finds salvation. After the police question her mother, Eve, about the death of Jonathan Tobias, the owner of Shrove House, 16-year-old Liza runs away with Sean, the young garden hand at the remote English manor. It is to him, over the course of 101 nights, that Liza gradually reveals her strange upbringing, living alone with Eve in the gatehouse of the Tobias estate. Rigorously schooled by her mother, isolated from all society except, on occasion, the mailman or groundskeeper and the few men, including Tobias, whom Eve admits into their world, Liza learns early that others may have something to fear from Eve, but that she does not. Credibility never flags as Edgar Award-winning Rendell ( Kissing the Gunner's Daughter ) reveals the specifics of Liza's increasing contact with the world, creating suspense in the gradually meted out details of Eve's intense attachment to Shrove House and her determination to protect Liza from civilization. Although unpredictable, the payoff seems a little weak and the careful pace somewhat slow; nevertheless, there are no holes in this psychological puzzler that has a strong afterlife. Author tour. (Oct.)

Putting this title in the mystery collection may be slightly misleading since the killer's identity is revealed early on, but listeners will find the tale as addictive as any whodunit. Seventeen-year-old Liza reveals her life story, Sheherazade-like, to her lover: raised in near isolation by her mother in a remote place, she finds herself abruptly sent away when her mother is arrested for murder. More than one man has disappeared after threatening her mother's peaceful lifestyle, and Liza must learn to live with the legacy of murder. Narrator Lisanne Cole is excellent, and the attractive packaging will entice listeners, but the story suffers some in abridged form. Recommended if budget woes will not allow for purchase of an unabridged version (if and when it becomes available).-- Luana Ellis, Jamestown Community Coll. Lib., Olean, N.Y.

YA-Beautiful Eve lives in isolation as caretaker of a remote, (mostly) vacant British estate, where she raises and educates her illegitimate daughter, Liza, away from any modern influences. She becomes involved with men from time to time, but if her privacy is threatened in any way, she murders them. When the police finally catch on and come to arrest Eve, Liza flees. She goes straight to the arms of an admiring young groundskeeper, who gladly welcomes her into his modest home (a van) and into his heart. Now that Liza has tasted freedom, though, she is reluctant to tie herself down, and she rejects her lover's eventual proposal of marriage. She takes the money that Sean offers her along with the van, and sets off on her own. Teens will be intrigued by this dark, multilayered story. Is Liza someone to be pitied, having been raised in total isolation by a half-mad mother, or is she the feminist ideal-intelligent, independent, and resourceful? The Crocodile Bird provides much food for thought for mature teens who have a taste for the unexpected.-Susan R. Farber, Chappaqua Public Library, NY

"On of the finest practioners of the craft in the English-speaking world." -- The New York Times Book Review

"It's hard to imagine anyone who could do more justice to a psychopath than Ruth Rendell."
-The Globe and Mail

"One of the greatest novelists presently at work in our language."
-Scott Turow

"A diabolically subtle writer."
-The New York Times Book Review