''The Keys to the Street'' is a crime novel by British writer

Ruth Rendell Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, (; 17 February 1930 – 2 May 2015) was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. Rendell is best known for creating Chief Inspector Wexford.The Oxford Companion ...

from 1996.

Synopsis

Against the will of her boyfriend, Alistair, Mary Jago volunteers to donate bone marrow. He beats her after finding out, so she breaks up with him and goes house-sitting for a rich couple in London. Leslie Bean, an old dog-walker, comes there twice a day to take the

shih tzu The Shih Tzu (, ; literally " Hsi Shih dog") is a toy dog breed originating from Tibet and was bred from the Pekingese and the Lhasa Apso. Shih Tzus are known for their short snouts and large round eyes, as well as their long coat, floppy ea ...

Gushi out along with five other dogs. Mary makes an appointment with Leo Nash, the

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

patient whose life she prolonged. Although he's secretive about his private life and doesn't want her to see his brother she starts an affair with him, much to the dislike of Alistair. Homeless people live in and around

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...

, including Roman Ashton, who's actually rich but prefers the street life since his wife and children died in a traffic accident. When Effie, a homeless woman, finds a corpse over the spikes of the park gate, he makes an anonymous phone call to the police. The victim is John Dominic Cahill, a homeless Irishman known as Decker. The newspaper nickname the killer 'The Impaler'. A second victim follows: James "Pharaoh" Clancy, a homeless man who was always wearing keys around his neck. DI William Marnock starts suspecting Bean, because he has accused the victim of beating him up and had plans to pay Hob, a drug addict, to beat up Pharaoh. In the meantime Mary starts asking questions about Leo and his mysterious brother.

Characters

*Mary Jago: young woman who donates bone marrow *Alistair: Mary's boyfriend, with whom she breaks up after he beats her *Frederica Jago: Mary's grandmother *DI William Marnock *Leo Nash:

patient whose life is prolonged by Mary's bone marrow donation *Carl Nash: Leo's ten year older brother *Leslie Bean: old dog-walker *Valerie Conway: maid of one of Bean's clients, where Boris the

borzoi The Borzoi or Russian Hunting Sighthound is a Russian breed of hunting dog of sighthound type. It was formerly used for wolf hunting, and until 1936 was known as the Russian Wolfhound. Etymology The system by which Russians over the ages n ...

lives *Harvey Owen Bennett ("Hob"): drug addict who beats people up for money *Deborah Cox: woman from the Harvest Trust, the organizer of the bone marrow donation *Dorothea Borwick:

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the

Irene Adler Irene Adler is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A former opera singer and actress, she was featured in the short story " A Scandal in Bohemia", published in July 1891. Adler is one of the ...

Museum, Mary's employer *Roman Ashton: rich man who chose to live on the streets after his wife and kids died in a traffic accident. *John Dominic Cahill ("Decker"): homeless Irishman, first victim *James Victor Clancy ("Pharaoh"): homeless man who wears a lot of keys around his neck *David George Kneller ("Nello"): homeless man *"Dill": homeless man *"Effie": homeless woman *" Tikka man": delivery man from the Express Tikka and Pizza

Reception

John Mullan in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'': "There's a manipulative plotter at work in ''The Keys to the Street'', and it is the author."

Adaptation

British-American director

Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&nb ...

had adapted the book into a screenplay which he originally planned to direct for Fox Searchlight, but moved on to make ''

Batman Begins ''Batman Begins'' is a 2005 superhero film directed by Christopher Nolan and written by Nolan and David S. Goyer. The film is based on the DC Comics character Batman, it stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman, with Michael Caine, ...

'' at Warner Bros. instead, citing the theme of the story being too similar to his previous films at the time. As of 2013, it was still in development.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keys To The Street 1996 British novels Novels by Ruth Rendell British mystery novels Hutchinson (publisher) books Crown Publishing Group books Doubleday Canada books