Uno de los más bellos parques de Londres es el Regent. En torno a él, se mueve un torbellino de gentes que de él parecen vivir y en él mueren. Mary Jago, aún demasiado joven y sumisa, acaba de caer por allí. Y aún es pronto para saber si eso es bueno para ella.

Good stuff, complicated stuff.

At the center of this multi-character story is Mary Jago. Mary is a young woman who is having some difficulty getting an abusive boyfriend out of her life entirely. She works at and partly owns an odd tourist attraction: The Irene Adler Museum. Adler was a fictional character in one of the Sherlock Holmes' stories (by Arthur Conan Doyle). The museum offers items from the period, items Adler "might have worn", "might have owned". It has a gift shop with reproductions of originals for sale. As it is located not far from the famous 221b Baker Street (Holmes' supposed residence), it attracts tourists in the area.

Mary moves out of the house she shared with Adrian, against his protests. She moves into a house-sitting job, taking care of a dog and a house while the owners are on a lengthy vacation in other countries. The house is in a nice location and is not far from the Adler museum, making it possible for her to walk to and from work. Unfortunately, Adrian shows up from time to time, expecting her to take him in and for their lives to continue as before, joined.

While Mary is dealing with relationship issues, others are making their lives very differently. Bean is a dogwalker who takes pride in where he lives, a residence willed to him when his wealthy employer died. Among others, Bean walks the dog belonging to the couple that Mary is housesitting for. Bean is ambitious and haughty, rather full of himself and not given to thinking well of others. The dogs put up with him but there is no evidence of any great affection towards him. Bean hatches a scheme to take advantage of his position to find little bits of dirt on his well-off employers and to use it to his advantage.

Roman lives on the streets. He doesn't have to, because he has money tucked away. But after his entire family was killed in a crash, he found no way to cope but to sell everything and take to the streets. He manages to maintain some semblance of an acceptable appearance, but his barrow of goods gives him away. One day when he awakes from inside the gate to the Adler Museum, Mary sees him and says hi to him. From then on, he takes an interest in her, one of the few people who think of the street people as still people. He even begins to feel a little protective of her when he sees an altercation with Adrian.

Then there's Hob. A petty criminal addicted to various substances, he is ripe for any job that can use any of his skills, including beating up various marks. Hob does not seem to have any endearing characteristics, which makes reading about him not much fun for me.

Mary, while still with Adrian, contacted an organization that solicits marrow donations from healthy persons for use in cancer cases. She offered to undergo the donation process for a person who had leukemia and would die without it. Some time after the donation, she learned that the recipient was doing well, and the organization allowed contact between them if she so wished. She did wish, and she arranged to meet him. This encounter led to many others, during which she found herself deeply drawn to the pale, thin person who reminded her very much of herself.

While all these people are going about their businesses, murders are committed. Street people are found hung on the stakes on top of walls. Because of various connections that do not seem connected, between Mary and the other characters, she is indeed connected with at least one of the murders.

Interesting and absorbing reading, complex enough to call for thought. ( )

An enticing read, it was like doing a jigsaw puzzle, finding people, places
and actions and putting them together in your mind.
A twist at the end is baffling.
The story and unfolding mystery is set around Regents Park in London.
I plotted the players movements and incidents on a map of the park and surrounds.
All the characters are well painted a seem very alive.
An enjoyable read on well constructed prose. ( )

Another outstanding work by Rendell. ( )

In the past twelve years I have read The Keys to the Street four times. it is always first or second at the top of my list of favorite suspense novels. The characters are as flawed as they are dynamic. The plot and pace take you across sweeping fields of emotion and crime. Taut writing and generous storytelling will haunt your memory for a long time to come. ( )