See More From Book Club Friends

Sign up and log in to post, comment and join the conversation.

Book Club Friends is 100% Canadian 🇨🇦

Ruth Rendell
The Vinegar Mother

The Vinegar Mother

In this short story from Ruth Rendell’s The Fallen Curtain, an eleven year old girl joins a classmate and her family for a summer in the countryside. But what should be a dream vacation becomes something closer to a nightmare, when a neighbor delivers an unexpected gift—a vinegar mother—that reveals fault lines below the surface of a seemingly happy marriage.

An ominous and unsettling story of trouble in paradise, The Vinegar Mother is an utterly gripping tale from the grande dame of the literary mystery.

A Vintage Short.

Author: Ruth Rendell
Published: 1976
Page Count:

This page may include affiliate links.

Purchase on:

Book Club Discussion Questions For The Vinegar Mother

The Vinegar Mother
Discuss The Vinegar Mother With Your Book Club Friends

Do you want to take a deeper dive intoThe Vinegar Mother? Chat about themes, characters, settings, plots and let’s celebrate this book for our Book of the Month discussion!

Suggest The Vinegar Mother

More Book Club Discussions

A Better Man
A Fatal Grace
A Great Reckoning
A Rule Against Murder
A Trick of the Light
A World of Curiosities
All the Devils Are Here
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s
Beautiful Ugly
Bury Your Dead
Glass Houses
How the Light Gets In
How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future
Iron Lake (20th Anniversary Edition)
Kingdom of the Blind
On Tyranny
State of Terror
Still Life
The Beautiful Mystery
The Boyfriend
The Briar Club
The Brutal Telling
The Crash
The Cruelest Month
The Frozen River
The Grey Wolf
The Housemaid
The Life We Bury
The Long Way Home
The Madness of Crowds
The Mighty Red
The Nature of the Beast
The River We Remember
The Rose Code
The Searcher
The Thursday Murder Club
See All Discussions

Highly Recommended Books by Ruth Rendell Book Club Friends

Winterkill
Lost Birds: A Leaphorn
W is for Wasted
Wildcat: V. I. Warshawski's First Case
The Chessmen
Bruno and the Carol Singers: A Christmas Mystery of the French Countryside
Make Death Love Me
The Dead Sea Cipher
Force of Nature
Walk the Wire
A Death in Cornwall
Devil's Waltz
Invisible Prey
Wild Crimes
Exit Music
A is for Alibi
Unnatural History: An Alex Delaware Novel
Leaving Everything Most Loved
Storm Prey
A Bird in the Hand
Moriarty
Left for Dead
The Perfect Husband
Garden of Lamentations
Autopsy
Black-Eyed Susan
He Shall Thunder in the Sky
Rain Gods
Whiteout
The Crow Trap
Cold Betrayal
Simply Lies
Mrs. Pollifax Pursued
The Perils of Morning Coffee
Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit
Alexandria
Finders Keepers
Fireball
Raisins and Almonds
A Hidden Secret: A Kate Burkholder Short Story
Locked Rooms
A Christmas Visitor
Beneath the Surface
The Return of Raffles
The Fifth Witness
Daisy Darker
Relic
The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel
Paper Money
The Geometry of Holding Hands
In a Dark House
Dark Sacred Night
With This Ring: A Deborah Knott Short Story
Middlemen
A Dangerous Mourning: A William Monk Novel
In a Dark
Never Saw it Coming
The Dirty Duck
Snobbery with Violence
Duma Key
We Begin at the End
A Spot of Folly
A Spoonful of Poison
Messenger: A Walt Longmire Story
Shadow of the Solstice
Death Row
Resurrection Walk
The Thirst: A Harry Hole Novel
Entry Island
Brimstone
Breakdown: A V.I. Warshawski Novel
The Wedding Guest
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell
Endangered
Dark August
Safe Before Dawn
The Chocolate War
The Part-Time Job
The Woman in Suite 11
The Perfect Son
Unnatural Habits
As the Crow Flies: A Longmire Mystery
An Unkindness Of Ravens
A Cold Treachery
The Concrete Blonde
A Christmas Garland
Tears of the Giraffe
The Glass Room
Ill Wind
To the Land of Long Lost Friends
I'll Keep You Safe
Past Pretense
Good Bad Girl
Diamond Dust
No More Dying Then
Killers of a Certain Age
Here One Moment
Poison Lilies
Still See You Everywhere
Run Away
The Dry
The Widows of Malabar Hill
Field of Prey
Skin and Bones: And Other Mike Bowditch Short Stories
The Black Cabinet
Bare Bones
Flash and Bones
The Franchise Affair
Blindsighted
Dressed for Death
Jennie
Crime Scene: A Novel
An Irish Hostage
Killing the Shadows
Sons of the Wolf
Tunnel Vision
Bruno's Challenge and Other Stories of the French Countryside
The Ghost Marriage
The Singing of the Dead
Land of Wolves: A Longmire Mystery
After the Storm
Spider Woman's Daughter
A Christmas Legacy: A Novel
Absolute Proof
Sea of Troubles
Death of a Master Chef: A Brittany Mystery
The Usual Santas: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers
Toxic Prey
Hard Eight
Skinwalkers
Every Secret Thing
Why We Die
Book of the Dead
Hemlock at Vespers
Lamentation
The Crash
A Lethal Lesson
Desperate Undertaking
The Big Gamble
Riviera Gold
Blood Will Tell
Cause of Death
Dead to Rights
Not Dark Yet
No Shred of Evidence
Bruno and Le Pere Noel: A Bruno
Split Second
The Imposter: A Mike Bowditch Short Mystery
The Hunter
The Old Silent
And When She Was Good
The Dark Wind
Be Buried in the Rain
The Devil's Seal
Death of a Dreamer
Visions of Sugar Plums
Billy Summers
Never Lie
Sunburn
No Cure for Love: A Novel
Five Fires
Manitou Canyon
The Tin Roof Blowdown
A Darker Reality
Denial
Snowflakes
The Widows
Kaleidoscope
The Floating Girl
Sharp Force
Blood Lure
Watching Eagles Soar
Spider Girl
The Full Cupboard of Life
When the Bough Breaks
A Royal Pain
Hide and Seek
In Plain Sight
Stone Cold
The Hangman
Destroyer Angel
Out of Bounds
What's Past Is Prologue
The Hanging Girl
Barriers to Entry
Borderline
Dark Sky
The Golem of Hollywood
Heaven's Prisoners
The Molly Murphy Series: Books 1-3
Heartstones
E is for Evidence
Slow Horses
The Shape of Night
The Last Remains
Shock Wave
Murder Unfolds
In Sunshine or in Shadow
The Deadly Dance
One Of Us Is Dead
The Girl with Braided Hair
The Sixth Man
Death of a Hussy
Milk and Honey: A Decker/Lazarus Novel
Framed in Fire
A Christmas Promise: A Novel
The Inheritance
Isle of Dogs
Code to Zero
I Am the Only Running Footman
Damage Control
The Twenty-Three
Murder on the Ile Sordou
The Shadow Murders
Agatha Raisin and The Case of the Curious Curate
Edge of Eternity
Someone in the House
The Love Talker
Still Life
Empress of the Seven Hills
The Monster in the Box
The Mermaids Singing
The Stone Circle
Earthly Delights
Two Bagger
The Purity of Vengeance
Twisted: A Novel
Moscow Rules
The Silent Spirit
Drop Shot
A Lonely Death
The Breakdown
In This Bright Future: A DC Smith Investigation
The Discreet Charm of the Big Bad Wolf
A Christmas Beginning
Triple Jeopardy
Strange Affair: An Inspector Banks Novel
The Codex
Prince of Fire
Airship
Christmas in Absaroka County: Walt Longmire Christmas Stories
Death of a Chimney Sweep
Nine Dragons
Final Edition
Splinter the Silence
Field of Bones
Under the Knife
The Mosquito
The Prisoner of Castillac
The Coworker
Marble Hall Murders
The Secret Encounter
Play Dead
To Dwell in Darkness
Skeleton Man
The Resistance Man
Nasty Girls
Buried Road
Sins of the Fathers
Robicheaux
Dark Corners
Do Not Disturb
Agatha Raisin and The Wizard of Evesham
Short Story: The MatchUp Collection
Breaking Point
A Body in the Bathhouse
No Safe House
House of Stone
Slaves of Obsession: A William Monk Novel
One True Love
The Midnight Feast
Exit Wounds
Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha
The Bone Bed
The Stone Wife
A Question of Identity
How to Raise an Elephant
A Forgotten Place
Not Safe After Dark: And Other Stories
Easy as A-B-C
A Finer End
The Third Gate
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
Thunder Bay
The Boyfriend
The Truth
The Hippopotamus Pool
A Trick of the Light
The Fleur de Sel Murders: A Brittany Mystery
Taking the Fifth
Unnatural Causes
Spook Street
In Dark Company: A Kate Burkholder Short Story
The Perfect Murder
The Fourth Sacrifice
Dead Lions
The Council of the Cursed
The Lantern Men
No Honor Among Thieves
The Weaker Sex