Books I read in 1987
Inspector Wexford is knocked out of commission when a car bomb meant for his daughter (an environmental activist and actress) injures him. This leaves his underling, Mike Burden, in charge of the case. The case concerns the death of a woman in a shopping mall garage.
She turns out to have not been the nicest woman, nor is anyone else in this story. (Rendell clearly was a bit of a misogynist).
Both Wexford, quickly back in the saddle, and Burden have their preferred murderer. There are lots of red herrings and excellent character development in this case. I guess Rendell's dark view of humanity coincides with mine.
11 comments:
Nice choice, Patti. I always did like the way Rendell developed her characters.
I know I read this one - I quit Rendell a few years later - but don't remember it at all. In general, with a couple of exceptions I prefer the Wexfords to the darker standalones. If you have Amazon Prime, the have the Rendell television show. We've bookmarked it but haven't started watching it yet. We've seen a few odd episodes over the years.
I keep meaning to try one although it looks like they didn't get such great reviews as compared to some of the other series. But i will try one.
Like Jeff, I read THE VEILED ONE long ago. And, like Jeff I tapered off reading Ruth Rendell shortly thereafter. Now, I read about one Rendell mystery per year.
She is grim. And a misanthrope, for sure. But for me, she is the queen of crime during my lifetime.
I really like the Wexfords and just haven't found any of her psychological standalones to really appeal to me.
I do like the ones written under Barbara Vine.
I read a lot of the Inspector Wexford books and I do prefer them over Rendell's other mysteries. But I think I missed some from the 1980's - 1990's and I might go back and try this one. I did read the next one in the series (Kissing the Gunner's Daughter, 1992) and most of the characters, except for Wexford and others in the police, were not likable at all.
I really liked ANNA'S BOOK (originally ASTA'S BOOK in Britain) by Vine, but then I would, since it is told in diary form, which always appeals to me in a novel.
I've read only one Rendell--Not in the Flesh--a Wexler, in fact, but was so underwhelmed I had to use the search vehicle on this blog to learn which one it was. I can endure a lot of nonsense in a novel if I a character or two interest me, and--even more important--if I like the narrative voice. Evidently the voice in this one was the Baroness Rendell's own, which I described in the review as inflicting "the constricted tedium of a chattering palace tongue." Surprises me that I suffered this all the way to the end.
You have to tolerate unlikable characters and a certain tone. I found it harder to read now than I did in 1987 because of that.
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