Ruth Rendell Books

An omnibus edition of three Ruth Rendell crime novels - A Demon in My View, A Judgement in Stone and The Face of Trespass.

These 16 stories explore the nightmarish point where sensuality and horror meet. Displaying their unique talents with a focus on dark fantasy, each writer offers a sophisticated tale that will delight fans of horror, erotica, and quality short fiction alike. Authors include Clive Barker, Joyce Carol Oates, Dan Simmons and Doug Clegg.

Four collections of some of Ruth Rendell's greatest original crime thrillers.

This Ruth Rendell omnibus of Inspector Wexford novels includes "A New Lease of Death", "The Best Man to Die", "Wolf to the Slaughter" and "Put On By Cunning". The author won the Crime Writer's Association Gold Dagger in 1976 for "A Demon in my View".

Two long stories, born from surprisingly fertile imaginations... In "The Arbutus," Ruth Rendell portrays an English family on vacation in Spain whose summer is marred by a mysterious and heartbreaking event. In a long flashback, the sister recalls the cursed stay: the exoticism of Mediterranean holidays intertwines with the bitterness of a fate forever marked by tragedy. Forever? Of course not, as Rendell reserves a series of twists for the end that are both subtle and skillful. This great mistress of suspense has invited a young talent, Helen Simpson, to appear alongside her in this volume. Simpson's story, "Flesh and Grass," immerses us in a macabre world populated by sinister characters: a chef with strange recipes, a perverse doctor engaged in dubious machinations, a little girl murdered in the forest... Woven with strange atmospheres and an unusual style, this text takes us into a decidedly unsettling universe.

This first in a series of anthologies sponsored by the British Crime Writers Association features 22 short stories with urban themes. The editor notes that he was looking for stories that offered imaginative takes on the familiar idea of big-city cr

An omnibus edition of three Inspector Wexford mysteries - Wolf to the Slaughter, Put on by Cunning and The Speaker of Mandarin.

Jenny's marriage is loveless, and she is having an affair. She works at an old people's home, where she is especially fond of Stella, a woman dying of cancer - whose own secrets parallel Jenny's - with the difference that she may have been involved in murdering her lover's husband.

Elena asks that you come to the House of Swans at once... Compelled by this message, the wealthy, sybaritic Sextus Roscius goes not to his harlot, but to his doom—savagely murdered by unknown assassins. In the unseasonable heat of a spring morning in 80 B.C., Gordianus the Finder is summoned to the house of Cicero, a young advocate staking his reputation on this case. The charge is patricide; the motive, a son's greed. The punishment, rooted deep in Roman tradition, is horrific beyond imagining.Gordianus's investigation takes him through the city's raucous, pungent streets and deep into urban Umbria, unraveling layers of deceit, twisted passions, and murderous desperation. From pompous, rouged nobles to wily slaves to citizens of seemingly simple virtue, the case becomes a political nightmare. As the defense proceeds toward a devastating confrontation in the Forum, one man's fate may be threaten the very leaders of Rome itself.

In the long hot summer of 1976, a group of young people are camping in Wyvis Hall. Adam, Rufus, Shiva, Vivien and Zosie hardly ask why they are there, what they are doing or how they are to live; they scavenge, steal and sell the family heirlooms. Ten years later, the bodies of a woman and a child are discovered in the Hall's animal cemetery.

The award-winning author and acclaimed mistress of suspense delves deeply into the heart of a family to uncover the circumstances that lead to murder more than thirty years ago. The story of a family's long-buried secret past is revealed--and the deadly consequences. Mystery Guild Selection. Doubleday Alternate.

This omnibus includes three Inspector Wexford novels, Some Lie and Some Die, Shake Hands Forever and A Sleeping Life. The author has won three Gold Dagger Awards from the Crime Writers Association and three Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America.

The memoirs of a young Danish woman living in London at the turn of the century are published to huge commercial success. Many years later, the woman's granddaughter discovers that one entry has been cut out of the original journals--an entry that may shed light on an unsolved multiple murder.

There are only two things in life that interest Stanley: solving crossword puzzles, and getting his hands on his mother-in-law's money. And in all those years it has never once occurred to Stanley that she would try to outsmart him and the money might never be his.

Sandor is a wonderful storyteller and little Joe is ready to listen. The power of the educated over the simple is horribly clear in this disturbing and unusual relationship. As Sandor's motivation both for rescuing little Joe and then for weaving his spell of words becomes clear, the darkness surrounding him is too much for them both, and for the beautiful ex-model sequestered in her Suffolk mansion by an obsessive husband. A net of fear, greed, love and desire closes around them in a landscape that heightens the contrast between man and the natural world. Barbara Vine is the pen-name of Ruth Rendell. She has won many awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger and two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America. She has also won the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer. Dermot Crowley has appeared in many West End plays including the original production of Amadeus. Other theatre credits include Finbar in The Weir and Scenes from the Big Picture. His television work includes Spooks, Kingdom, New Tricks and Bleak House, while among his films are The Legend of Bagger Vance, Before You Go and Babel.

The Killing Doll: Weaves together the ultimately deadly stories of Pup Yearman, who sold his soul to the devil, his unhappy older sister, and butcher-knife keeper Diarmit Bawne. .... Live Flesh: After ten years in prison for shooting -- and permanently crippling -- a young policeman, Victor Jenner is released to a strange new world and told to make a new life for himself. It's hard to fill the days, but at least there's one blessing -- he was never convicted for all those rapes he committed. Then Victor meets David, the policeman he shot all those years ago, and David's beautiful girlfriend, Clare. And suddenly Victor's new life is starting to look an awful lot like the old one . . .

Still following up with a previous child abduction ("The pure in heart"), DCI Simon Serrailler now must deal with the crazy grief of a widowed husband, a derangement which turns to obsession and threats, violence and terror. Meanwhile, Simon finds his heart troubled by the newest recruit to the Cathedral staff: a feisty female Anglican priest with red hair. Some descriptions of violence and some strong language.

Teddy Brex emerges from a loveless, isolated childhood as a handsome but autistic young man. Francine Hill, traumatized by the murder of her mother, grows into a beautiful young woman. Teddy rides to her rescue, but he is a man who has already committed two murders

Detective Mike Burden's wife has just died, and his sister-in-law is staying at his house to help take care of his two children. He is so utterly miserable, and grief stricken, that he can't see how much they all need him to focus himself on his home life. Partially because of his inability to deal with his personal life, when a 5-year-old boy disappears, he throws himself whole-heartedly into the investigation. He becomes over involved with the boy's mother. The recent disappearance of a 12-year-old girl makes the case more worrisome.

Most people would have screamed. Mrs Hathall made no sound. She had seen death many times, but she had never witnessed death by violence. Heavily, she plodded across the room and descended the stairs to where her son waited. "There's been an accident," she said. "Your wife's dead." Chief Inspector Wexford could discover no motive, no reason, no suspect. All he had were his own intuitive suspicions. Probably he was reading meaning where there was none; probably Angela Hathall really had picked up a stranger, and that stranger had killed her. But why such doubt? Is Wexford becoming cynical and untrusting? Or is this simply one of the most ingenious crimes he has ever tackled?

Sir Manuel Carmargue, one of the greatest flautists of his time, was dead. Misadventure. An old man, ankle-deep in snow, he lost his foothold in the dark, slipping into the water to be trapped under a lid of ice. Only a glove remained to point to where he lay, one of its fingers rising out of the drifts. There's nothing Chief Inspector Wexford likes better than an open-and-shut case. They're so restful. And yet there are one or two niggling doubts - and the disturbing return of Carmargue's daughter, now a considerable heiress, after an absence of nineteen years. Is Wexford going to listen to that nagging inner voice of his? And if he does, what exactly does he plan to do?

Gone with the Wind is a great romantic story of love and war and one of the best-selling books of all time. In Part 2, the American Civil War has destroyed Scarlett O’Hara’s comfortable world. Will she lose her home too? Or can she save it and rebuild her life?

A Reg Wexford mystery. In a desolate subterranean car park, Detective Chief Inspector Wexford has been too preoccupied to notice anything out of the ordinary - just a teenage girl in a red car, driving rather too fast. Only later does he learn of the car park victim, murdered with a length of wire.

In "The Tree of Hands," three mothers face grief, madness, and a harrowing act of love amidst a backdrop of kidnapping and murder. With intricate plotting and deep emotional resonance, Ruth Rendell delivers a gripping tale that intertwines suspense with poignant themes of loss and courage.

Liza, a naive 17-year-old, is forced to leave home by her obsessively protective mother, Eve. Their life together is at an end, because Eve is a murderess. This explores the theme of innocence and experience, while retaining the constant tension of violent death. By the author of "Live Flesh".

Eleven masterful, eerie suspense tales by the outstanding English mystery writer show what happens when the sinister thoughts of ordinary people are unleashed

A crime mystery based around the London Underground and the people frequenting it

The twelfth book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford. Having just returned from a once-in-a-lifetime holiday in China, Wexford finds himself haunted by memories of the old woman with bound feet who mysteriously followed him from one city to the next and the man who tragically drowned.

Susan Townsend was the only resident with no interest in her next-door neighbour's affair. Yet it was Susan who found the bodies of the lovers, locked not in passion, but in death.

Who could have suspected that the exciting stag party for the groom would be the prelude to the murder of his close friend Charlie Hatton? And Charlie's death was only the first in a string of puzzling murders involving small-time gangsters, cheating husbands, and loose women. Now Chief Inspector Wexford and his assistant join forces with the groom to track down a killer . . .

Stephen Whalby loves to walk the moor. He considers it his, although he and his young wife Lyn are merely tenants in a flat nearby. But the senseless and frightening murder of a young woman invades Stephen's sense of privacy and pollutes his beloved moor with suspicion and dread. And then a second murder captures his imagination in an unpredictable and fascinating way . . .

What on earth could have provoked a modern day St. Valentine's Day massacre? On Valentine's Day, four members of the Coverdale family - George, Jacqueline, Melinda and Giles - were murdered in the space of 15 minutes. Their housekeeper, Eunice Parchman, shot them, one by one, in the blue light of a televised performance of Don Giovanni. When Detective Chief Superintendent William Vetch arrests Miss Parchman two weeks later, he discovers a second tragedy: the key to the Valentine's Day massacre hidden within a private humiliation Eunice Parchman has guarded all her life. A brilliant rendering of character, motive, and the heady discovery of truth, A Judgement in Stone is among Ruth Rendell's finest psychological thrillers.

The seventh book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford. But then he discovers that his nephew Howard is heading the investigation into the macabre murder of Loveday Morgan, whose body was found abandoned in Kenbourne Cemetery.

The middle-aged woman lying on the footpath is biggish and unattractive. Yet even in death her eyes hold a defiant look. Everyone in this Kingsmarkham neighborhood knew her name was Rhoda Comfrey and that she was down from London visiting her invalid father. But when Inspector Wexford looks further, he finds Miss Comfrey's life for the past twenty years is a complete mystery. She leaves behind no address, no job, no banker, no friends. Wexford's only clue to her killer is an elegant wallet from a posh London shop...but his instinct tells him that behind this murder lies a tangled web of the most sordid sort.

"A Ruth Rendell Mystery Two years ago he had been a promising young novelist. Now he survived you could hardly call it living - in a near derelict cottage with only an unhooked telephone and his own obsessive thoughts for company. Two years of loving Drusilla - the bored, rich, unstable girl with everything she needed, and a husband she wanted dead. The affair was over. But the long slide into deception and violence had just begun. . . 'A beautiful double-take plot. And characters seen with compassion. Her best yet!' H. R. F. KEATING THE TIMES"

A mutilated body found at a rock festival. In spite of dire predictions, the rock festival in Kingsmarkham seemed to be going off without a hitch, until the hideously disfigured body is discovered in a nearby quarry. And soon Wexford is investigating the links between a local girl gone bad and a charismatic singer who inspires an unwholesome devotion in his followers.Some Lie and Some Dieis a devilishly absorbing novel, in which Wexford's deductive powers come up against the aloof arrogance of pop stardom. With her Inspector Wexford novels, Ruth Rendell, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, has added layers of depth, realism and unease to the classic English mystery. For the canny, tireless, and unflappable policeman is an unblinking observer of human nature, whose study has taught him that under certain circumstances the most unlikely people are capable of the most appalling crimes. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Murder, corruption, blackmail. All these are part of someone else's world, not part of the everyday lives of ordinary people...or are they? This is a collection of sinister stories from the bestselling author who won The Sunday Times Literary Award for 1990.

Weaves together the ultimately deadly stories of Pup Yearman, who sold his soul to the devil, his unhappy older sister, and butcher-knife keeper Diarmit Bawne.

A by-pass is planned in Kingsmarkham - that will destroy its peace and the natural habitat forever. Dora Wexford joins the protest movement. But Wexford must be more circumspect. Trouble is expected. But before the protesters make their presence felt, the

With floods threatening both the town of Kingsmarkham and his own home and no end to the rain in sight, Chief Inspector Wexford already has his hands full when he learns that two local teenagers have gone missing along with their sitter, Joanna Troy. Their hysterical mother is convinced that all three have drowned, and as the hours stretch into days Wexford suspects a case of kidnapping, perhaps connected with an unusual sect called the Church of the Good Gospel. But when the sitter’s smashed-up car is found at the bottom of a local quarry–occupied by a battered corpse–the investigation takes on a very different hue. The Babes in the Wood is Ruth Rendell at her very best, a scintillating, precise and troubling story of seduction and religious fanaticism–and murder.

This title contains two novels by Ruth Rendell - 'The Bridesmaid' and 'To Fear a Painted Devil'.

Sixteen-year-old Elvira's mother is dead. Elvira is sad, of course, but not so sad as her younger sister Spinny. Spinny is afraid their father, Luke, will be heartbroken, but Elvira knows better -- after all, Luke has her to take her mother's place. But then Luke brings home a pretty young woman and introduces her as his fiancee, and Elvira decides that she will stop at nothing to stop her father's marriage . . .

New and uncollected tales of murder, mischief, magic and madness. Ruth Rendell was an acknowledged master of psychological suspense: these are ten (and a quarter) of her most chillingly compelling short stories, collected here together for the first time. In these tales, a businessman boasts about cheating on his wife, only to find the tables turned. A beautiful country rectory reverberates to the echo of a historical murder. A compulsive liar acts on impulse, only to be lead inexorably to disaster. And a wealthy man finds there is more to his wife's kidnapping than meets the eye.Atmospheric, gripping and never predictable, this is Ruth Rendell at her inimitable best. The stories are: Never Sleep in a Bed Facing a Mirror; A Spot of Folly; The Price of Joy; The Irony of Hate; Digby's Wives; The Haunting of Shawley Rectory; A Drop Too Much; The Thief; The Long Corridor of Time; In the Time of his Prosperity; and Trebuchet.Introduction from Sophie Hannah.

A collection of five short mystery stories featuring Chief Inspector Wexford.

Martin Urban has always led a confortable and safe life. Until he wins a fortune on the pools and decides to use some of his new-found wealth to help those less fortunate than himself...Finn lives a dangerous life and he too comes into some money. But his came in cash, wrapped in newspaper. Finn is also interested in helping people - as long as the price is right.If all had remained as it had been, the path of Martin and that of Finn would never have crossed. But Martin's money - which he hopes to use to change the lives of strangers - changes his own life as well. And so it is that the good intentions of one become fatally entangled with the macabre madness of the other.

Philip Wardman had more than just trhe ordinary squeamishness where death was concerned. Yet he could hardly avoid the suspicious disappearance of his sister's friend Rebecca Neave, especially when everyone was ascribing the cause to murder. Philip's fenimine ideal is the statue of the Roman Goddess Flora in his mother's garden. His marble Flora doesn't fade, doesn't alter, doesn't die. But then he meets Senta Pelham a beautiful, sensual, childlike actress who flgrantly disdains the morals of society and passionately desires the elusive Philip - container.

Unkindness: the collective word for a group of ravens. They are not particularly predatory birds . . . but neither are they soft and submissive. Detective Chief Inspector Wexford thought he was merely doing a neighbourly good deed when he agreed to talk to Joy Williams about her missing husband. And he certainly didn't expect to be investigating a most unusual homicide . . .

This is a haunting & dramatic collection of long & short stories which reveal the amazing range of one of Britain's major novelists. It features the first Wexford short story to have appeared since Means of Evil.

Alan Groombridge had a fantasy. Husband to a woman he didn't like, father of two children he had never wanted, and manager of the second smallest branch of the Anglian-Victoria bank in the country, Alan was doomed to a life of domestic boredom and tedious routine. All that saved him was one fantasy: stealing enough of the bank's money to allow him just one year of freedom - one year in which to live a different sort of life. But one day there was no more dreaming and no more games. The Anglian-Victoria bank was robbed and both manager and cashier disappeared. ln place of the dull and dreary repetition that had once existed, there came a brutal, chilling nightmare that might never, never end.

Victor Jenner is a sociopath. After ten years in prison for shooting - and permanently crippling - a young policeman, Victor is released to a strange new world and told to make a new life for himself. And suddenly Victor's new life is starting to look an awful lot like the old one.

Mary Jago, separated from the bullying Alistair, has moved into a house in Regent's Park - Here she becomes embroiled in events that endanger her life.

Arthur Johnson doesn't look like a murderous psychopath; Locked in the cellar of his building is the perfect willing victim, a woman who can be murdered over and over again, a woman who waits for Arthur every night...

The second book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford. Called in to investigate, Chief Inspector Wexford quickly determines that the Nightingales were considered the perfect couple - wealthy, attractive and without an enemy in the world. Someone who hated - or perhaps loved - her enough to beat her to death.

Tim Cornish, a creative writing student, sits composing a confession: an admission of a crime committed two years ago that has yet to be discovered. It began when he first encountered Ivo, a magnetic man, older than himself, and felt compelled to kiss him. By the time they travel together to Alaska's glacial wastes, Tim has fallen in and out of love with Ivo; his real passion is now only for Isabel whom he has met in Ivo's absence. The horror of Tim's subsequent journey with Ivo, battling with disgust and despair, may andure in his memory for ever

Called to Tancred House, to a scene of ghastly carnage, Chief Inspector Wexford must bring his considerable detective skills to bear on a case with no witnesses, two suspects who have vanished into thin air, conflicting clues, and a kaleidoscope of motives.

Safe houses and secret message drops, double crosses and defections - it sounds like the stuff of sophisticated espionage, but the agents are only schoolboys engaged in harmless play, unaware of the danger awaiting them if their messages were intercepted...

This omnibus contains two of Ruth Rendell's crime novels - 'The Lake of Darkness' and 'The Veiled One'.

Blood. That's what Martin Nanther's great-grandfather Henry was interested in. As Queen Victoria's faboured physician he became expert in diseases of the blood, particularly the royal disease of haemophilia. But, as Martin discovers whilst researching Henry's life, he was not just expert - he was obsessed. Yet reading between the lines of Henry's medical essays and diary, Martin begins to suspect that his great-grandfather was less than candid about both his life and work. What was he trying to conceal? Were the tragedies of his family life more than mere accidents? And what implications does it have for Martin, the blood doctor's descendant?

Like any small community, Linchester has its intrigues: love affairs, money problems, unhappy marriages. But the gossip is elevated to new heights when young Patrick Selby dies on the very night of his beautiful wife's birthday party. The whole neighbourhood was there, witness to the horrible attack of wasp stings Patrick suffered at the end of the evening. But did Patrick die of a wasp sting? Dr. Greenleaf thinks not. Heart failure, more likely . Still, Greenleaf isn't at peace about his death. After all, everyone in Linchester hated Patrick. With the help of a certain naturalist, Dr. Greenleaf begins to think about murder.

'Adam And Eve And Pinch Me Went Down To The River To Batheadam And Eve Were Drowned. Who Was Saved?'This Old Nursery Rhyme Is A Favourite Of Jerry Leach (If That Is The Name He Is Using At The Time), A Handsome Ne'Er Do Well, Who Sponges Off Women. Five Women, Unknown To Each Other, Are His Willing Victims. One He Even Married Once And Abandoned, While Promising To Marry Another. But, With The Cruel Irony He Would Be The First To Recognize In That Nursery Rhyme, Jerry, Almost Accidentally, Becomes The Victim Of One Of His Female Prey. 'Minty Knox Sees Ghosts. And Because This Is Rendell Territory, We Know This Will Not Be A Supernatural Thriller But Rather An Exploration Of What Happens When Personal Delusions Collide With Reality-With Her Usual Deft Touch, Ruth Rendell Pulls The Strands Of Her Story Together, Weaving A Taut And Terrifying Narrative Which Reminds Us That Nothing We Do Is Without Consequence, Nor Are Those Consequences Ever Within Our Control.' Val Mcdermid, Daily Express

The twenty-fourth book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford. The impossible has happened. Chief Inspector Reg Wexford has retired from the crime force. He and his wife, Dora, now divide their time between Kingsmarkham and a coachhouse in Hampstead, belonging to their actress daughter, Sheila. Wexford takes great pleasure in his books, but, for all the benefits of a more relaxed lifestyle, he misses being the hand of the law. But a chance meeting in a London street, with someone he had known briefly as a very young police constable, changes everything. Tom Ede is now a Detective Superintendent, and is very keen to recruit Wexford as an adviser on a mysterious murder case. The bodies of two women and a man have been discovered in the old coal hole of an attractive house in St John's Wood. None of the corpses carry identification. But the man's jacket pockets contain a string of pearls, a diamond and a sapphire necklace as well as other jewellery valued in the region of £40,000. To Wexford, this is definitely a case worth coming out of retirement for. He is intrigued and excited by the challenge, but unaware that this new investigative role will bring him into extreme physical danger...

An omnibus edition of three of Ruth Rendell's Wexford mysteries. They feature a predictable, ordinary woman who meets a passionate death, a reinvestigation of a hanging 15 years earlier, and the puzzling death of a cocky little lorry-driver.

The Copper Peacock: a hideous bookmark given to Bernard, a writer, by his attractive cleaning lady, Judy. She had brought order to a hitherto chaotic life, but now the bookmark destroys all this, shattering his razor sharp sensibilities.

Mystery surrounds the disappearance of Melanie, the local doctor's daughter - Chief Inspector Wexford takes a personal interest in the case___

'In GOING WRONG she has quite simply transformed the genre of crime writing. She deploys her peerless skills in blending the mundane, commonplace aspects of life with the potent, murky impulses of desire and greed, obsession and fear. . this is a book that cannot be taken for granted, and no reader should pass it by. ' ANTHONY CLARE. SUNDAY TIMES

'Someone had told Dex that the Queen lived in Victoria. So did he, but she had a palace and he had one room in a street off Warwick Way. Still he liked the idea that she was his neighbour.' Dex works as a gardener for Dr Jefferson at his home on Hexam Place in Pimlico: an exclusive street of white-painted stucco Georgian houses inhabited by the rich, and serviced by the not so rich. The hired help, a motley assortment of au pairs, drivers and cleaners, decide to form the St Zita Society (Zita was the patron saint of domestic servants) as an excuse to meet at the local pub and air their grievances. When Dex is invited to attend one of these meetings, the others find that he is a strange man, seemingly ill at ease with human beings. These first impressions are compounded when they discover he has recently been released from a hospital for the criminally insane, where he was incarcerated for attempting to kill his own mother. Dex's most meaningful relationship seems to be with his mobile phone service provider, Peach, and he interprets the text notifications and messages he receives from the company as a reassuring sign that there is some kind of god who will protect him. And give him instructions about ridding the world of evil spirits . . . Accidental death and pathological madness cohabit above and below stairs in Hexam Place.

When Stuart Font decides to throw a house-warming party in his new flat, he invites all the people in his building. After some deliberation, he even includes the unpleasant caretaker and his wife. There are a few other genuine friends on the list, but he definitely does not want to include his girlfriend, Claudia, as that might involve asking her husband. The party will be one everyone remembers. But not for the right reasons. All the occupants of Lichfield House are about to experience a dramatic change in their lives... Living opposite, in reclusive isolation, is a young, beautiful Asian woman, christened Tigerlily by Stuart. As though from some strange urban fairytale, she emerges to exert a terrible spell. And Mr and Mrs Font, the worried parents, will have even more cause for concern about their handsome but hopelessly naive son. Darkly humorous, piercingly observant of human behaviour, Ruth Rendell has created here another compelling fable of our lives and crimes.

It was a brutal, vicious crime -- sixteen years old. A helpless old woman battered to death with an axe. Harry Painter hung for it, and Chief Inspector Wexford is certain they executed the right man. But Reverend Archery has doubts . . . because his son wants to marry the murderer's beautiful, brilliant daughter. He begins unravelling the past, only to discover that murder breeds murder -- and often conceals even deeper secrets . . .

No Man's Nightingale- the eagerly anticipated twenty-fourth title in Ruth Rendell's bestselling Detective Chief Inspector Wexford series. The woman vicar of St Peter's Church may not be popular among the community of Kingsmarkham. But it still comes as a profound shock when she is found strangled in her vicarage. Inspector Wexford is retired, but he retains a relish for solving mysteries especially when they are as close to home as this one is. So when he's asked whether he will assist on the case, he readily agrees. But why did the vicar die? And is anyone else in Kingsmarkham in danger? What Wexford doesn't know is that the killer is far closer than he, or anyone else, thinks.

The long title story is about a man whose life, in a sense, is a book. The second novella, High Mysterious Union, explores a strange, erotic universe in a dream-like corner of rural England, and illustrates very atmospherically what range Ruth Rendell has as a writer, expanding beyond her famous sphere of crime writing.

Sie waren Papas ein und alles, aber sie hatten keine Ahnung, wer Papa in Wirklichkeit war. Die älteste Tochter Sarah beginnt, die Lebensgeschichte des verstorbenen Vaters zu schreiben. Sarah taucht ein in die Untiefen eines Lebens, das wie das Meer an der Küste von Devonshire, an der der Familiensitz liegt, morsche Bruchstücke freigibt. Zum Vorschein kommen beängstigende Details eines Doppellebens.

Chief Inspector Wexford investigates the circumstances surrounding a blood-soaked hotel room which lacks any other signs of a victim, and the disappearance of a beautiful, promiscuous woman and the bundle of cash she'd had in her pocket.

Living in a decaying house in Notting Hill, Mix Cellini is obsessed with 10 Rillington Place, where the notorious John Christie committed a series of foul murders. He is also infatuated with a beautiful model who lives nearby - a woman who would not look at him twice. Mix's landlady, is equally reclusive - living her life through her library of books. Both landlady and lodger inhabit weird worlds of their own. But when reality intrudes into Mix's life, a long pent-up violence explodes. -- back cover

One of the series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Wexford. The police knew all about Margaret Parsons - a religious, old-fashioned and respectable woman, as unexciting and dependable as her marriage. But it wasn't her life that interested Wexford - it was her violent, passionate death.

Inspector Wexford confronts the terrifying world of domestic violence when a series of kidnappings leads back to his own daughter's volunteer work at a shelter for battered women

Searching for truffles in a wood, a man and his dog unearth something less savoury. The body, as Chief Inspector Wexford is informed later, has lain buried for ten years or so, and the post-mortem can not reveal the precise cause of death. Wexford knows

Wealthy Alice Whittaker -- now Alice Fielding -- is known for her generosity, and when her friend Nesta vanishes Alice is determined to find her and help her. If that means money, well, Alice has plenty of it. Then Alice starts to feel sick -- a virus perhaps, something she just can't shake. Her handsome husband, who is ten years younger than she is, seems determined to keep her at home. Does he just want her to feel better? Or is he trying to keep her from finding Nesta? Ill though she is, Alice can't help asking questions. And the more she learns about Nesta's disappearance, the more certain she becomes that her own life is in peril....