Inspector Wexford

Charlie Hatton wanted fast money and conspicuous success, and he was prepared to cut any corners to get them. But before he could realize a single ambition, he was found dead at the edge of a river.

Inspector Wexford and his assistant Burden unravel the threads connecting the drowning of an elderly, world-renowned flautist and the murder of a woman whose identity confounds them.

Named as a life peer in the House of Lords in 1997, Ruth Rendell is also a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master and the winner of three Edgars and four Golden Dagger Awards. Her Inspector Wexford mysteries thrill audiences around the globe with their complex plots and nuanced characters. As a favor to his wife, Inspector Wexford agrees to investigate the case of a missing husband. After gathering evidence, Wexford seems pretty certain that Joy Williams' husband simply ran off with a younger woman. But when Rodney Williams is found stabbed to death, Wexford does a little more digging. It seems that the murder is tied to a militant feminist group working in the area. They call themselves the Arria and they've taken the raven as their symbol.

Who would garrote a middle-aged housewife and leave her body in the parking garage of a suburban shopping mall? Chief Inspector Wexford is no sooner on the case than a car bomb's explosion lands him in the hospital. It's now up to Mike Burden to step in and solve the case. He's got a suspect . . . but will he be able to make him talk?

Wexford is horrified by the carnage he encounters at Tancred Manor, home of a famous anthropologist, but he is determined to do all that he can for 17-year-old Daisy, the only survivor of the mass murders that obliterated her family.

A proposed highway through a forest near Kingsmarkham has caused loud cries of protest. One group has taken more drastic measures. It will risk everything-including the lives of five hostages-to halt construction. When Inspector Wexford learns that one of the hostages is his wife Dora, he is caught in a spiral of frustration and fear. The gripping drama of his search takes on added intensity through Davina Porter's crisp narration.

Acknowledged as one of today's premier mystery writers, Ruth Rendell has won three Edgar Awards and four Gold Dagger Awards. She received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and was awarded the Commander of the British Empire. Among her most popular books are those in the Inspector Wexford series. Harm Done presents the inspector with a most volatile challenge: the various guises of domestic abuse. The residents of a shabby housing complex in the London suburb of Kingsmarkham are furious. A convicted pedophile, released from prison, has returned to their community. At the same time, two young women disappear, each returning several days later with little memory of where she has been. As Wexford investigates, Kingsmarkham is rocked by violence and murder. To prevent further harm, the inspector must coax some surprising motives from the reluctant suspects. Narrator Davina Porter gives an absorbing performance of Rendell's finely-crafted, suspenseful work.

There hadn't been anything like this kind of rain in living memory. The River Brede had burst its banks, and not a single house in the valley had escaped flooding. Even where Wexford lived, higher up in Kingsmarkham, the waters had nearly reached the mulberry tree in his once immaculate garden. The Subaqua Task Force could find no trace of Giles and Sophie Dade, let alone the woman who was keeping them company, Joanna Troy. But Mrs. Dade was still convinced her children were dead. This was an investigation which would call into question many of Wexford's assumptions about the way people behaved, including his own family.

Chief inspector Wexford had almost made up his mind that he would never again set eyes on Eric Targo's short, muscular figure. And yet there he was, back in Kingsmarkham, still with that cocky, strutting walk. Years earlier, Targo stalked and taunted Wexford, daring him to press charges after a woman was found strangled in her bedroom. Over the years there are more unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town, and Wexford suspects that the increasingly prosperous Targo is behind them.

In the stunning climax to Rendell's classic 1998 novel A Sight for Sore Eyes, three bodies-two dead, one living-are entombed in an underground chamber beneath a picturesque London house. Twelve years later, the house's new owner pulls back a manhole cover, and discovers the vault-and its grisly contents. Only now, the number of bodies is four. How did somebody else end up in the chamber? And who knew of its existence? With their own detectives at an impasse, London police call on former Kingsmarkham Chief Inspector Wexford, now retired and living with his wife in London, to advise them. Wexford, missing the thrill of a good case, jumps at the chance to sleuth once again. His dogged detective skills and knack for figuring out the criminal mind take him to London neighborhoods, posh and poor, as he follows a complex trail leading back to the original murders a decade ago. But just as the case gets hot, a devastating family tragedy pulls Wexford back to Kingsmarkham, and he finds himself transforming from investigator into victim. Ingeniously plotted, The Vault is a masterful sequel to A Sight for Sore Eyes that will satisfy both longtime Wexford fans and new Rendell readers alike.

INCLUDES AN EXCERPT OF RENDELL'S FINAL NOVEL, DARK CORNERS. From one of the most remarkable novelists of her generation a refined, probing, and intelligent mystery in the masterful Inspector Wexford series…more enthralling than ever after fifty years. A female vicar named Sarah Hussein is discovered strangled in her Kingsmarkham vicarage. A single mother to a teenage girl, Hussein was working in a male-dominated profession. Moreover, she was of mixed race and wanted to modernize the church. Could racism or sexism have played a factor in her murder? Maxine, the gossipy cleaning woman who discovered the body, happens to also be in the employ of retired Chief Inspector Wexford and his wife. Wexford is intrigued by the unusual circumstances of the murder, and when he is invited by his old deputy to tag along with the investigators, he leaps at the chance. As Wexford searches the Vicar's house, he sees a book on her bedside table. Inside the book is a letter serving as a bookmark. Without thinking much, Wexford puts it into his pocket. Wexford soon realizes he has made a grave error in removing a piece of valuable evidence from the scene without telling anybody. Yet what he finds inside begins to illuminate the murky past of Sarah Hussein. Is there more to her than meets the eye? No Man's Nightingale is Ruth Rendell's masterful twenty-fourth installment in one of the great crime series of all time, an absorbing and rewarding mystery that explores issues of sexism, class, and racism.