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Inspector Wexford #4
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262 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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About the author
Ruth Rendell
559听books1,585听followersA.K.A. Barbara Vine
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, who also wrote under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, was an acclaimed English crime writer, known for her many psychological thrillers and murder mysteries and above all for Inspector Wexford.
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, who also wrote under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, was an acclaimed English crime writer, known for her many psychological thrillers and murder mysteries and above all for Inspector Wexford.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 224 reviews
December 23, 2016
This is the 4th book in the Inspector Wexford series by author Ruth Rendell.
I never manage to read this series in the order they were written but I don't feel that it deflects at all from my overall enjoyment. I have now read about 5 books in this series and although I have given them all a moderate rating I have nevertheless enjoyed them and generally feel the more I read the better they get with the main characters becoming a lot more familiar.
This novel features a stag party on the eve of Jack Pertwee's wedding where Charlie Hatton his best man is murdered. Charlie is a truck driver, but appears to be flush with money and is not shy when it comes to flashing it around. He appears to have been involved in some shady business and truck hi-jacks are mentioned as a possible source of his extra income. Inspector Wexford leads the case aided by Inspector Burden to try and find the identity of Charlie's killer. They are also investigating a car crash a few weeks earlier that killed two people and a woman who they struggled to identify.
A good British crime novel that may appear a little tame by today's standard.
I never manage to read this series in the order they were written but I don't feel that it deflects at all from my overall enjoyment. I have now read about 5 books in this series and although I have given them all a moderate rating I have nevertheless enjoyed them and generally feel the more I read the better they get with the main characters becoming a lot more familiar.
This novel features a stag party on the eve of Jack Pertwee's wedding where Charlie Hatton his best man is murdered. Charlie is a truck driver, but appears to be flush with money and is not shy when it comes to flashing it around. He appears to have been involved in some shady business and truck hi-jacks are mentioned as a possible source of his extra income. Inspector Wexford leads the case aided by Inspector Burden to try and find the identity of Charlie's killer. They are also investigating a car crash a few weeks earlier that killed two people and a woman who they struggled to identify.
A good British crime novel that may appear a little tame by today's standard.
October 31, 2020
As the English Mysteries Group works our way through a read (or re-read for many of us) of the full Inspector Wexford canon, this is the first one that has the authentic feel of the series. It seems as if Rendell had figured out by this book what she wanted to do with Wexford and Burden and the Kingsmarkham police. I haven't checked it out, but I wonder if it was about this time that she began writing those rather unnerving psychological thrillers, which perhaps freed her to pursue something more traditional with this series? Now that I think about it, there s definitely more humor in this volume, which could support that theory.
In any event, it was great to see Chief Inspector Wexford's personality, along with ME Crocker's, finally emerge more fully. Curiously, we'd been given a pretty good sense of Inspector Burden, Wexford's sidekick, in the earlier books. It's an intriguing, intertwining plot, a good sense of place, well developed characters, and a bit of indirect social commentary. And definitely a lower percentage of individuals with no redeeming qualities, something of a relief over the last book.
My benchmark for rating on this would be English police procedurals, and it merits a solid 5 stars.
In any event, it was great to see Chief Inspector Wexford's personality, along with ME Crocker's, finally emerge more fully. Curiously, we'd been given a pretty good sense of Inspector Burden, Wexford's sidekick, in the earlier books. It's an intriguing, intertwining plot, a good sense of place, well developed characters, and a bit of indirect social commentary. And definitely a lower percentage of individuals with no redeeming qualities, something of a relief over the last book.
My benchmark for rating on this would be English police procedurals, and it merits a solid 5 stars.
July 12, 2015
Another Inspector Wexford mystery, this one from 1970 ...
You read this, with characters who are too materialistic, too made-up (the women) who are wholly narcissistic and who are all about what they own, how much of it and who's looking at it, and you might think, okay, this was written today. We've got these sorts all around, just check the internet...
Then you realize these people have always been around; it's just the way they parade their wealth/status/arrogance which has changed. The book is filled with them, the so-called 'filthy rich' who aren't content with mere physical greed and materialism; they bask in it; they crave attention; they feel entitled.
So when one of them is found murdered, you have to wonder, who cares? Well the police care and Wexford starts his investigation with his sidekick, Burden, by interviewing a host of none-too-savory characters. It's a convoluted case, with new characters added in as needed. There's a side plot which becomes part of the main plot, and honestly, hardly a sympathetic character in sight. Even Wexford's 'beautiful' daughter Shelia can be a bit of a pill. (My mother used to use the word 'pill' for women she thought were full of themselves.) But with a bit of sleuthing and people saying the right thing at the right time, and while being stuck in an elevator, Wexford figures out who killed the greatly unlikeable Charlie Hatton.
Now I know this is a well-received series, Inspector Wexford by Ruth Rendell, but so far I am batting about fifty/fifty, with some stories three stars, and a few with four.
You read this, with characters who are too materialistic, too made-up (the women) who are wholly narcissistic and who are all about what they own, how much of it and who's looking at it, and you might think, okay, this was written today. We've got these sorts all around, just check the internet...
Then you realize these people have always been around; it's just the way they parade their wealth/status/arrogance which has changed. The book is filled with them, the so-called 'filthy rich' who aren't content with mere physical greed and materialism; they bask in it; they crave attention; they feel entitled.
So when one of them is found murdered, you have to wonder, who cares? Well the police care and Wexford starts his investigation with his sidekick, Burden, by interviewing a host of none-too-savory characters. It's a convoluted case, with new characters added in as needed. There's a side plot which becomes part of the main plot, and honestly, hardly a sympathetic character in sight. Even Wexford's 'beautiful' daughter Shelia can be a bit of a pill. (My mother used to use the word 'pill' for women she thought were full of themselves.) But with a bit of sleuthing and people saying the right thing at the right time, and while being stuck in an elevator, Wexford figures out who killed the greatly unlikeable Charlie Hatton.
Now I know this is a well-received series, Inspector Wexford by Ruth Rendell, but so far I am batting about fifty/fifty, with some stories three stars, and a few with four.
March 27, 2017
This was first published in 1969 and it shows in its evocation of a very different world: where having a lift put into a police station is A Very Big Deal, where even 'good' characters like Wexford can be pompously misogynistic, where buying a fridge or a 'record player' or a washing machine is firm evidence of wrong-doing on the part of working-class characters, where a young man in his 20s wears dentures... I partly enjoyed this slice of social history but found Rendell's snide snobbery overbearing at times, particularly the way in which she portrays class.
That said, once we've wrestled with the social commentary, there's an intriguing story underneath with some excellent plotting to link a crude murder of a best man the night before a wedding with a car-crash, a burnt body and a woman just coming out of a coma.
I listened to the audio-book and found Robin Bailey's voice very, very elitist and 'upper-class' (which does allow him to get in what seems to be Rendell's own sneering at uppity lorry-drivers and left-wing girlfriends...). That aside, this is a short, 'old-school' detective story: good plotting, interesting if jarringly unpleasant social commentary, and lots of old-fashioned detecting.
That said, once we've wrestled with the social commentary, there's an intriguing story underneath with some excellent plotting to link a crude murder of a best man the night before a wedding with a car-crash, a burnt body and a woman just coming out of a coma.
I listened to the audio-book and found Robin Bailey's voice very, very elitist and 'upper-class' (which does allow him to get in what seems to be Rendell's own sneering at uppity lorry-drivers and left-wing girlfriends...). That aside, this is a short, 'old-school' detective story: good plotting, interesting if jarringly unpleasant social commentary, and lots of old-fashioned detecting.
January 10, 2018
I'm slowly making my way through the Inspector Wexford books, and each one is an old-fashioned but not too old-fashioned pleasure: Rendell continues to use these as a showcase for the comfort-reading delight of blending Agatha Christie-style puzzle mysteries with a more real, textured world. The style here is always restrained, Wexford and Burden always witty, warm, and suitably irritated, and the crimes always seem solvable by the attentive reader, but the world is recognizably ours--well, recognizably ours in the late sixties, at least--and full of complications, dark undercurrents, and well-developed characters.
The Best Man to Die centers around the murder of Charlie Hatton, the best friend and best man of Jack Pertwee, the faithful and generous husband of his wife Lilian, and an absolute dick to literally everyone else. It immediately becomes apparent that Charlie is living well beyond his means and certainly had some kind of illegally-gained income, but there the investigation briefly stalls: was Charlie making his money off orchestrating robberies? By blackmail? If it's blackmail, who was he blackmailing, and what did he know about them? Is it possible that someone killed him just for the hundred pounds in his wallet and the sheer satisfaction of shutting him up before he made one more snide little dig?
Floating around the vicinity of all this is an overpriced dentist with a collection of Chinese artwork, a car crash survivor who claims her daughter (identified as having also died in the crash) is still alive and in Germany, a newly-installed lift in the police station, and a somewhat pathetic dog that Wexford has been saddled with caring for. Some of the plot developments are obvious--as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a movie not otherwise remotely related to Rendell, would put it, --but others are not, and others are not developments at all as much as they're complications, the red herring of something looking like a clue when it's really just a person behaving according to their own motives, initially unknown to our detectives. There is also the matter of Jack's grief for his murdered friend, which Rendell is sometimes wry about but always sympathetic toward--these were two men who genuinely loved each other as friends in a sliver of culture that didn't allow them to ever directly acknowledge that, and there's a nicely-mined pathos in Jack being effectively bereaved without the clear right to ever complain about it or show it without being judged.
Call it 3.5, rounded up for enjoyment but otherwise lessened by being a little slight for a Rendell--I screwed up the curve on all of these by starting with the comparatively weak From Doon with Death. This is better than that but worse than, say, Sins of the Fathers, but thus far, all of these have been well worth reading.
The Best Man to Die centers around the murder of Charlie Hatton, the best friend and best man of Jack Pertwee, the faithful and generous husband of his wife Lilian, and an absolute dick to literally everyone else. It immediately becomes apparent that Charlie is living well beyond his means and certainly had some kind of illegally-gained income, but there the investigation briefly stalls: was Charlie making his money off orchestrating robberies? By blackmail? If it's blackmail, who was he blackmailing, and what did he know about them? Is it possible that someone killed him just for the hundred pounds in his wallet and the sheer satisfaction of shutting him up before he made one more snide little dig?
Floating around the vicinity of all this is an overpriced dentist with a collection of Chinese artwork, a car crash survivor who claims her daughter (identified as having also died in the crash) is still alive and in Germany, a newly-installed lift in the police station, and a somewhat pathetic dog that Wexford has been saddled with caring for. Some of the plot developments are obvious--as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a movie not otherwise remotely related to Rendell, would put it, --but others are not, and others are not developments at all as much as they're complications, the red herring of something looking like a clue when it's really just a person behaving according to their own motives, initially unknown to our detectives. There is also the matter of Jack's grief for his murdered friend, which Rendell is sometimes wry about but always sympathetic toward--these were two men who genuinely loved each other as friends in a sliver of culture that didn't allow them to ever directly acknowledge that, and there's a nicely-mined pathos in Jack being effectively bereaved without the clear right to ever complain about it or show it without being judged.
Call it 3.5, rounded up for enjoyment but otherwise lessened by being a little slight for a Rendell--I screwed up the curve on all of these by starting with the comparatively weak From Doon with Death. This is better than that but worse than, say, Sins of the Fathers, but thus far, all of these have been well worth reading.
May 3, 2016
Interesting enough that I read it all through (I'm very often a skipper if a book isn't holding me, life-is-too-short) but I won't retain much of it, except perhaps the large-headed dentist who made the most expensive false teeth in England. From the moment she described his big square head with hair to match I knew he was member of the unpleasant rich classes who feature so often in regional English crime. Mind you, I don't think there's a single nice person in this book. Wexford himself is chronically grumpy, his daughter manipulative (is this supposed to be charming?) and everybody else unpleasant in some way. I guess crime fiction as a genre doesn't deal with the better side of human nature.
February 7, 2017
This 1969 Inspector Wexford mystery has compelling characters, plot and setting. It鈥檚 interesting to hear the author鈥檚 sociological comments from the 60鈥檚 point of view. The more things change, etc. Also notable 鈥� Fantastic Dog Description!!! Won鈥檛 give away spoilers but is almost a must read for that alone. hehehhe
August 3, 2020
Just finished my reread of this and enjoyed it very much. There were some really funny instances in it that made me chuckle.
Anyone want to join me in talking to me about it please join us at the English Mysteries group's buddy read. The More the merrier.
Anyone want to join me in talking to me about it please join us at the English Mysteries group's buddy read. The More the merrier.
February 24, 2019
This is book 4, and this one has the complex plot that one thinks of when Rendell is mentioned.
Jack and Charlie are best friends, have been since they were schoolboys together. They are working class; Jack an electrician, Charlie a lorry driver. Jack and Charlie would do absolutely anything for each other. Rendell describes their relationship as akin to David and Jonathan, which is pretty much the gold standard for male friendship. Anyway, Jack is getting married and Charlie and a few other guys are at Jack鈥檚 stag party. The interactions between Charlie and the other guys are very enlightening as to Charlie鈥檚 character: while he may be a great friend to Jack, he isn鈥檛 so much to anyone else.
So it really isn鈥檛 a surprise to the reader that someone hits him on the head that night while he is walking home in the dark by the river. Wexford begins investigating, of course, and quickly discovers that Charlie has far too much money for a lorry driver.
Wexford follows various ideas, leads and suppositions about where Charlie obtained the extraneous cash - Charlie鈥檚 wife honestly doesn鈥檛 know, and Jack refuses to talk. BTW, Jack鈥檚 fianc茅e is a very memorable secondary character: she鈥檚 a Communist, and her rants against capitalism could be taken from today鈥檚 Twitter.
I鈥檝e said before that Rendell鈥檚 characterizations are top-notch, and this book is no exception. Of course Wexford and Burden are well drawn, but so are the dozen or so secondary characters, from Charlie鈥檚 wife to Dr. Vigo, a wealthy dentist, to Mrs. Fanshawe, a woman injured in a car wreck, and her daughter, Nora, to Clymenestra, a dog with 鈥渆ars like knitted dishcloths鈥� who is temporarily residing at Wexford鈥檚 home.
Jack and Charlie are best friends, have been since they were schoolboys together. They are working class; Jack an electrician, Charlie a lorry driver. Jack and Charlie would do absolutely anything for each other. Rendell describes their relationship as akin to David and Jonathan, which is pretty much the gold standard for male friendship. Anyway, Jack is getting married and Charlie and a few other guys are at Jack鈥檚 stag party. The interactions between Charlie and the other guys are very enlightening as to Charlie鈥檚 character: while he may be a great friend to Jack, he isn鈥檛 so much to anyone else.
So it really isn鈥檛 a surprise to the reader that someone hits him on the head that night while he is walking home in the dark by the river. Wexford begins investigating, of course, and quickly discovers that Charlie has far too much money for a lorry driver.
Wexford follows various ideas, leads and suppositions about where Charlie obtained the extraneous cash - Charlie鈥檚 wife honestly doesn鈥檛 know, and Jack refuses to talk. BTW, Jack鈥檚 fianc茅e is a very memorable secondary character: she鈥檚 a Communist, and her rants against capitalism could be taken from today鈥檚 Twitter.
I鈥檝e said before that Rendell鈥檚 characterizations are top-notch, and this book is no exception. Of course Wexford and Burden are well drawn, but so are the dozen or so secondary characters, from Charlie鈥檚 wife to Dr. Vigo, a wealthy dentist, to Mrs. Fanshawe, a woman injured in a car wreck, and her daughter, Nora, to Clymenestra, a dog with 鈥渆ars like knitted dishcloths鈥� who is temporarily residing at Wexford鈥檚 home.
February 21, 2017
I was enjoying this until about two-thirds of the way through when this giant plot hole opened up that was never resolved. It essentially destroyed the story.
Recall that in the beginning the aunt misidentified the dead girl from the car wreck because she was hideously burnt in the crash and, it is implied, was found in the car along with the deceased driver. Then, much later, a work acquaintance of the deceased is able to identify her from the remains of her charred and burnt stockings.
Then we're told the dead girl wasn't in the crash at all. She was thrown onto the road by the murderer. The stockbroker's car swerved to avoid her and ran off the road and caught fire. She was nowhere near the inferno. I kept waiting for Wexford (or anyone) to realise this but it never happened.
Recall that in the beginning the aunt misidentified the dead girl from the car wreck because she was hideously burnt in the crash and, it is implied, was found in the car along with the deceased driver. Then, much later, a work acquaintance of the deceased is able to identify her from the remains of her charred and burnt stockings.
Then we're told the dead girl wasn't in the crash at all. She was thrown onto the road by the murderer. The stockbroker's car swerved to avoid her and ran off the road and caught fire. She was nowhere near the inferno. I kept waiting for Wexford (or anyone) to realise this but it never happened.
June 5, 2024
Charlie Hatton, a cocky little lorry driver with a fat wallet, is murdered the night before his best friend's wedding. What's Charlie been into, and is it really enough to get him killed? And is there a link to the recent death of two people in a road accident? The sole survivor, who has just awoken from a coma, insists only her husband was in the car, so who is the young woman also found at the scene?
The Best Man to Die, first published in 1969, is the seventh book in my Great Ruth Rendell In Order Reread, and the fourth to feature Chief Inspector Wexford and Kingsmarkham police. Wexford's family make, I think, their first appearance here - we meet his wife, though she's nameless as yet, and his daughter Sheila. We'll see much more of them in later books.
I'm sure I've read this book before but I didn't really remember anything about it. It's a good read, as ever, but unlike the preceding book, The Secret House of Death, I suppose there was nothing to hugely stick in the memory.
There are some jarring things for the modern reader. When a man cries after learning of his best friend's death, Burden considers him a "weak, womanish fool". Ouch! We can put that down to Burden's own prejudices, but Wexford is no feminist either - he makes some reflections on women's inequality, but concludes that he also doesn't really want women to be equal, presumably because it would be inconvenient for him. (I suspect his daughter Sheila might have something different to say on the matter.)
A child is referred to as a "mongol", a word which now feels uncomfortable even to repeat, though I suppose was common parlance at the time.
Overall a solid addition to the pantheon but not a standout.
The Best Man to Die, first published in 1969, is the seventh book in my Great Ruth Rendell In Order Reread, and the fourth to feature Chief Inspector Wexford and Kingsmarkham police. Wexford's family make, I think, their first appearance here - we meet his wife, though she's nameless as yet, and his daughter Sheila. We'll see much more of them in later books.
I'm sure I've read this book before but I didn't really remember anything about it. It's a good read, as ever, but unlike the preceding book, The Secret House of Death, I suppose there was nothing to hugely stick in the memory.
There are some jarring things for the modern reader. When a man cries after learning of his best friend's death, Burden considers him a "weak, womanish fool". Ouch! We can put that down to Burden's own prejudices, but Wexford is no feminist either - he makes some reflections on women's inequality, but concludes that he also doesn't really want women to be equal, presumably because it would be inconvenient for him. (I suspect his daughter Sheila might have something different to say on the matter.)
A child is referred to as a "mongol", a word which now feels uncomfortable even to repeat, though I suppose was common parlance at the time.
Overall a solid addition to the pantheon but not a standout.
January 11, 2018
I have a bit of a cold and there is a bit of an ice storm going on, the perfect (for me) excuses/reasons to sit more of less comfortably at home re-reading a partially remembered classic mysteries by Ruth Rendell. This was not one of her absolute best but still quite good; Wexford and Burden are faced with the death of a man almost everyone liked, other than the few citizens of Kingsmartin who really disliked him. None of them, of course, were the killer although each of them had both opportunity and, if strong antipathy is reason enough to kill, motive. There is the mix of village hypocrisy, real human emotion and police procedure that characterize most of Rendell's Wexford series.
March 31, 2025
If you are looking for a good British crime novel then Rendell is your girl. The best man to die is the fourth wonderful book in the Inspector Wexford series. It is old police procedural at its best. With mystery, muder, mayhem and more it is a fun read and great way to leave the houswork behind.
July 29, 2020
Good friends are always there for you in a pinch and that was exactly what Charlie Hatton did for his electrician friend Jack Pertwee. Hatton helped find a flat for Pertwee and his fiance, put down the key money and would serve as his best man at his wedding. Only thing, Hatton was killed on the evening of the big event ...
Chief Inspector Wexford is the one to oversee the murder case, while his associates deal with a woman who awakes from a coma, caused by an accident that killed her husband and her daughter. They hope that she can tell them why her husband swerved, crashing the car and sending himself and his daughter out of the car to their deaths.
It's another day in the life of Wexford who may hate dealing with people but knows them enough to know when they are lying or telling the truth, when things add up and when they don't. And in this case the investigator slowly pulls things together to solve both mysteries.
Another great story from Ruth Rendell who has created a truly interesting character in Wexford, who might not be the type of person you would want as a friend, but you definitely want him in your corner when it comes to death. He and Rendell are a winning team when it comes to a good story.
Chief Inspector Wexford is the one to oversee the murder case, while his associates deal with a woman who awakes from a coma, caused by an accident that killed her husband and her daughter. They hope that she can tell them why her husband swerved, crashing the car and sending himself and his daughter out of the car to their deaths.
It's another day in the life of Wexford who may hate dealing with people but knows them enough to know when they are lying or telling the truth, when things add up and when they don't. And in this case the investigator slowly pulls things together to solve both mysteries.
Another great story from Ruth Rendell who has created a truly interesting character in Wexford, who might not be the type of person you would want as a friend, but you definitely want him in your corner when it comes to death. He and Rendell are a winning team when it comes to a good story.
December 1, 2020
Two Shall Be As One
Review of the Arrow Books paperback edition (1981) of the John Long original hardcover (1969)
I read The Best Man to Die as part of my ongoing survey of classic crime writing. (1930-2015) is especially known for the psychological elements in her crime fiction.
The Best Man to Die is a fairly early Chief Inspector Wexford novel, listed as #4 out of 24. All the personality traits are in place though with the occasional cantankerous behavior and the quoting of the classics. Two cases are involved here, the best man for an upcoming wedding is murdered the night before the ceremony and a mysterious car accident from several weeks before has an unexpected survivor. Wexford disentangles the rather complex set of clues that bring the two mysteries and solutions together.
Trivia and Link
I read The Best Man to Die in its 1981 Arrow paperback edition (pictured above) rather than the later 1990s Arrow paperback edition which is used by 欧宝娱乐.
Review of the Arrow Books paperback edition (1981) of the John Long original hardcover (1969)
I read The Best Man to Die as part of my ongoing survey of classic crime writing. (1930-2015) is especially known for the psychological elements in her crime fiction.
The Best Man to Die is a fairly early Chief Inspector Wexford novel, listed as #4 out of 24. All the personality traits are in place though with the occasional cantankerous behavior and the quoting of the classics. Two cases are involved here, the best man for an upcoming wedding is murdered the night before the ceremony and a mysterious car accident from several weeks before has an unexpected survivor. Wexford disentangles the rather complex set of clues that bring the two mysteries and solutions together.
Trivia and Link
I read The Best Man to Die in its 1981 Arrow paperback edition (pictured above) rather than the later 1990s Arrow paperback edition which is used by 欧宝娱乐.
October 7, 2021
I recently read the very first Wexford book and thought it was not bad, but didn't feel compelled to read them in order. So I next tried one of the later ones and didn't like it much... thought, maybe she had run a little dry, I'll try an earlier one again. This had a lot of problems with the plot, it got very convoluted and hard to follow, I could not figure out how the police figured it out as it didn't make sense and there is a very important clue that is hidden until the end because if you knew it it would have been too obvious, but that's bad plot construction and the characters were all so unlikeable I didn't much care who got murdered or why anyway. Sort of disappointing, I was hoping to really like this series.
January 13, 2009
This book was written 40 years ago, but it's still a great read. I love Rendell's Inspector Wexford series. Her mysteries are so well written, they practically read themselves. She knows just how to hook the reader and keep him/her turning the pages. In the past, many of the older books in the Wexford series haven't been available at the library, so I was thrilled to find this reissued paperback in the "new books" section. This is a short one (just 200 pages), but you actually get two mysteries playing out at the same time and, as always, the witty and endearing musings of Chief Inspector Wexford are an added treat.
January 25, 2018
Not the best Wexford; in fact, he is almost unlikable in this book as is Shelia. The mystery - three bodies no less - is not really all that interesting. Rendell's word play and writing is great, but not the best Rendell either.
December 31, 2023
Het vierde boek met Inspekteur Wexfor in de hoofdrol. Op dit ogenblik is al overduidelijk dat Ruth Rendell een topper is en een blijvertje zoals later zal blijken. Bij dit begin van haar carri猫re is ze nog helemaal niet besmet met het woke-virus dat haar latere boeken een onnodig vies bijsmaakje zal geven.
Wexford krijgt een heel moeilijke zaak voor zijn kiezen terwijl zijn collega's een andere zaak volledig verkeerd aanpakken. Tot er een verband blijkt te bestaan tussen de twee zaken, dan is het aan Wexford om beide zaken op te lossen. Hiervoor heeft hij zijn vernuft, de hulp van aijn onontbeerlijke assistent Burden en het gezonde verstand van zijn vrouw nodig, alsook toch een tikkeltje geluk.
Zoals gebruik speelt het verhaal zich af tegen de achtergrond van het gemoedelijke Engelse platteland. Een huwelijk start onder een heel slecht gesternte en de verwikkelingen in de moordzaak doen vrezen voor de toekomst van die relatie. Een ander huwelijk gaat kapot door moord. Het huwelijk van Wexford staat als een rots, niet in het minste door de aard van zijn vrouw.
De boeken van Rendell zijn allesbehalve vervelend, de recensies worden dat wel. Wereldtop.
Wexford krijgt een heel moeilijke zaak voor zijn kiezen terwijl zijn collega's een andere zaak volledig verkeerd aanpakken. Tot er een verband blijkt te bestaan tussen de twee zaken, dan is het aan Wexford om beide zaken op te lossen. Hiervoor heeft hij zijn vernuft, de hulp van aijn onontbeerlijke assistent Burden en het gezonde verstand van zijn vrouw nodig, alsook toch een tikkeltje geluk.
Zoals gebruik speelt het verhaal zich af tegen de achtergrond van het gemoedelijke Engelse platteland. Een huwelijk start onder een heel slecht gesternte en de verwikkelingen in de moordzaak doen vrezen voor de toekomst van die relatie. Een ander huwelijk gaat kapot door moord. Het huwelijk van Wexford staat als een rots, niet in het minste door de aard van zijn vrouw.
De boeken van Rendell zijn allesbehalve vervelend, de recensies worden dat wel. Wereldtop.
December 20, 2021
Who killed Charlie? This is the question Inspector Wexford must answer. Charlie, killed the night before he is to be the best man at his friends wedding, is spending money hand over fist. He is a truck driver and their salary doesn't come close to being that good. Where was all the money coming from that Charlie was spending? This series is one of those small town detective stories where the older Inspector must use all his logic to solve when things don't seem to make sense, and the author throws in some red herrings. Totally enjoyed this read
May 17, 2020
Mukavalla tavalla vanhahtava rikostarina, mieleen tulivat Agatha Christien kirjat, joissa mysteerit ja murhaajat selvi盲v盲t hienostuneella tavalla pohdiskellen. Juoni oli rakennettu mainiosti, mutta hieman minua h盲iritsiv盲t hahmot, joiden v盲lisi盲 luokkaeroja Rendell alleviivasi turhan korostetusti. Ihan ok -sarjaan kuuluva dekkari.
November 14, 2021
A classic Rendell 鈥� some interesting characters with longish, dark histories; embedded in the class system but possibly looking askance at it; unflinching in its portrayal of failure, but not without sympathy; a nice solution, which Wexford gets to with hard slog (that usually comes up negative) and a stroke of luck (that leads him to the answer).
Slightly more wry humour here than normal, which created a bit of a tonal discord. And the second of her early novels that makes rather callous references to a 鈥淢ongoloid鈥� child. Although that鈥檚 of it鈥檚 time I find it rather distasteful, to say the least, as thoughtful authors often do a better job at moving beyond the prejudices and cruelties of their milieux.
NB. The blurb here says 鈥淣ow Wexford and Burden must join forces with the groom to catch the killer鈥�, which is complete nonsense. Sometimes you get a great blurb, and sometimes you really don鈥檛.
NB2. This is the first Rendell that I鈥檓 sure I have read before, probably a couple of decades ago. I remembered the murderer about three quarters of the way through. But yesterday I found on my bookshelf a Wexford anthology containing three of the audiobooks I have recently listened to without any such sense of familiarity鈥� Looking on the bright side a dodgy memory allows for a repeated freshness.
Slightly more wry humour here than normal, which created a bit of a tonal discord. And the second of her early novels that makes rather callous references to a 鈥淢ongoloid鈥� child. Although that鈥檚 of it鈥檚 time I find it rather distasteful, to say the least, as thoughtful authors often do a better job at moving beyond the prejudices and cruelties of their milieux.
NB. The blurb here says 鈥淣ow Wexford and Burden must join forces with the groom to catch the killer鈥�, which is complete nonsense. Sometimes you get a great blurb, and sometimes you really don鈥檛.
NB2. This is the first Rendell that I鈥檓 sure I have read before, probably a couple of decades ago. I remembered the murderer about three quarters of the way through. But yesterday I found on my bookshelf a Wexford anthology containing three of the audiobooks I have recently listened to without any such sense of familiarity鈥� Looking on the bright side a dodgy memory allows for a repeated freshness.
May 17, 2023
The man in the river was definitely murdered. But was it connected with a highway accident which claimed a man and left his wife in a coma? There was also a dead girl at the scene. Was she in the car too? How is this connected to the man in the river? Inspector Wexford wants to know.
April 13, 2024
Um enredo habilmente constru铆do, envolvente e personagens complexos. Ruth Rendell conduz o leitor por reviravoltas surpreendentes at茅 o desfecho final. A escrita cativante e atmosfera envolvente fazem deste livro uma leitura imperd铆vel para os amantes do suspense.
September 10, 2017
Not one of her best. It's confusing and she's a bit sloppy in building the solution to the case.
June 26, 2021
Almost everyone in this book is unikable, including Wexford who is just this side of being a curmudgeon. His daughter, Sheila, comes across as spoiled and thoughtless, and even Burden has little to recommend him. That's one of the reasons I gave this book a low rating. It had promise at the beginning, but soon fell apart.
June 6, 2024
Yeah not for me! So dated and slow, think this is my first RR and as a classic will be my last.
February 16, 2022
Such a good free series on Audible, it has been a pleasure so far.
December 7, 2022
A thoroughly satisfying Wexford mystery. I just didn鈥檛 have a clue as to the ending!
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