Inspector Wexford

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Ruth Rendell strikes at the subtle heart of crime

Ruth Rendell is “probably the greatest living crime writer” says Ian Rankin, himself no slouch in that genre and creator of one of my favourite detectives, the fabulously flawed John Rebus. She certainly is one of the most prolific including 24 of the highly successful Inspector Wexford series and many more under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. For decades she has been dissecting in minute detail the British with all their foibles and hang-ups, and propensity for strange, if not always illegal, behaviour. Rendell is most at home in the claustrophobic world of small communities in rural England; in particular in peeling back the layers of class and wealth to reveal the core of conflict and criminality.

 In her latest novel, The Girl Next Door, we know whodunit right from the beginning. And what. And why. The discovery of the dismembered, skeletal hands, male and female, in a box, is a typically Rendell flourish, but in this case so much time has passed, police conduct only the most cursory investigation. Rendell is more thorough.

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