Books by Ruth Rendell and Complete Book Reviews

Antonia Fraser, Compiled by, Ruth Rendell, Author, Erle Stanley Gardner, Author Severn House Publishers $24 (256p) ISBN 978-0-7278-4918-2
A welcome reissue is The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza, the fourth entry in Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series originally published in 1980. The Greenwich Village bookseller who moonlights as a burglar ""happens"" to discover a rare coin in...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Crown Publishers $24 (327p) ISBN 978-0-609-60417-5
A pair of English teens, Teddy and Francine (who have grown up in dysfunctional families where common parenting faults are taken to extremes), meet and think that in each other they might find the beauty and freedom their own lives are lacking....
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Ruth Rendell, Author . Crown $25 (368p) ISBN 978-0-609-61025-1
This latest gem from the British master concerns the wreckage wrought on a variety of Londoners by a womanizing con man who speaks in rhymes. Here, as in A Sight for Sore Eyes (1999), Rendell's genius is to create characters so vivid they live...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Mysterious Press $19.95 (378p) ISBN 978-0-89296-390-4
Four years after The Veiled One , Rendell's Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford returns in a superbly characterized, deftly plotted puzzler that explores the dark side of family life. A dinner-hour call for help brings Wexford and his assistants to...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Crown Publishing Group (NY) $20 (361p) ISBN 978-0-517-59576-3
Like a modern-day Scheherazade, young Liza Beck tells her story over a span of nights and in the process finds salvation. After the police question her mother, Eve, about the death of Jonathan Tobias, the owner of Shrove House, 16-year-old Liza runs
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Ruth Rendell, Author Crown Publishing Group (NY) $24 (0p) ISBN 978-0-517-70685-5
In a story that commands--and fully rewards--intense engagement from its readers, Rendell (The Crocodile Bird; Simisola) once again proves an astute, intense observer of physical and psychological detail, demonstrating that we are surrounded by...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Crown Publishers $23 (327p) ISBN 978-0-517-70073-0
In her 17th mystery starring Chief Inspector Wexford (after Kissing the Gunner's Daughter), Rendell casts a decidedly baleful eye on changes in the Sussex country town of Kingsmarkham and its people-the appearance of slums, the rise of decidedly...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Crown Publishing Group (NY) $24 (0p) ISBN 978-0-517-70347-2
How effective is a paragraph of Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment out of context? Not very, and that's the problem with Rendell's anthology of more than 100 snippets from sources as diverse as the Bible, Matthew Arnold's ""Sohrab and Rustum,"" Toni
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Ruth Rendell, Author Crown Publishing Group (NY) $23 (224p) ISBN 978-0-517-70323-6
This riveting group of stories puts the reader into familiar Rendell territory; not just the burgeoning villages of Kingsmarkham and Stowerton that Chief Constable Wexford and his assistant, Mike Burden, call their own, but the territory of the mind.
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Ruth Rendell, Author Crown Publishers $25 (352p) ISBN 978-0-609-60056-6
The latest Inspector Wexford tale (following Simisola, 1995) from the redoubtable Rendell has a spectacularly unexpected twist. His wife, Dora, usually a sensible but taken-for-granted background decoration, moves to center stage as a kidnap victim.
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Ruth Rendell, Author Mysterious Press $17.95 (183p) ISBN 978-0-89296-465-9
The marvelous title story, like most in this collection of nine tales by British doyenne of suspense, Edgar-winning Rendell, delights with its fine-tuned psychological effects. Egotist Bernard borrows a friend's flat to ensure quiet while he writes...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Crown Publishers $24 (352p) ISBN 978-0-609-60547-9
In her latest Inspector Wexford mystery (following Road Rage), the prolific Rendell shows that, like Wexford, she too is a master of indirection. Like a stout, aging British Columbo, Wexford hides his intuition and keen powers of observation behind...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Crown Publishers $23 (224p) ISBN 978-0-609-60853-1
Multiple Edgar and Gold Dagger award winner Rendell displays her mastery of spine-tingling suspense in her first short story collection since Blood Lines (1996). In the scary title tale, a solitary, arrogant, self-appointed fault-finder is haunted...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Crown Publishing Group (NY) $25.95 (303p) ISBN 978-0-307-40681-1
In bestseller Rendell's superb 21st Inspector Wexford mystery (after 2005's ""End in Tears""), the British police detective investigates first one, then two male bodies that turn up on the old Grimble property in the insular hamlet of Flagford. Who...
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Ruth Rendell. Scribner, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4391-5034-4
Rendell's spare, sleek novel of psychological suspense gets off to a slow start, then picks up speed to become vintage Rendell, not the powerhouse of the 1990s but with enough plot petrol to blow most American authors out of the water. Personalities
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Ruth Rendell. Scribner, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4516-2408-3
In Rendell's fine follow-up to A Sight for Sore Eyes (1999), a non-Wexford novel in which a working-class aesthete's quest for beauty earned him an ugly, unexpected end, horror strikes the home improvement plans of Martin and Anne Rokeby. The couple
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Ruth Rendell. Scribner, $26 (272p) ISBN 978-1-4516-6668-7
A gardener believes he’s hearing the voice of God on his cellphone. A chauffeur is bedding his employer’s wife and daughter. A sexual affair is morphing into murder. And the help of a London street, Hexam Place, meet to drink and grouse at a nearby...
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Ruth Rendell. Scribner, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4767-4448-3
In Rendell’s absorbing 24th Inspector Wexford novel (after 2011’s The Vault), the Kingsmarkham, England, sleuth tries to find out who strangled the Rev. Sarah Hussain in the vicarage of St. Peter’s Church, and why. The fact that Hussain was biracial
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Ruth Rendell. Scribner, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4767-8432-8
In this assured novel of psychological suspense from Diamond Dagger Award–winner Rendell (The St. Zita Society), a gruesome discovery jolts a group of friends and acquaintances who grew up outside London during WWII. Two people’s hands—severed and...
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Ruth Rendell. Scribner, $26 (240p) ISBN 978-1-5011-3478-4
MWA Grand Master Rendell (1930–2015) often explored the lives of the luckless who are dogged by disastrous coincidence. In this, her final book, writer Carl Martin is one such hapless fellow. Carl inherits a choice townhouse in London's chic Maida...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Mysterious Press $28 (268p) ISBN 978-0-89296-388-1
A young man fearful of violence, an extravagantly eccentric young woman and three deaths figure in this atmospheric but insubstantial mystery from one of England's finest horror/suspense writers. Philip Wardman, beginning his career as an interior...
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Ruth Rendell, Author . Crown $25 (336p) ISBN 978-1-4000-4930-1
Wexford fans may be disappointed by the shortage of memorable characters in Rendell's latest mystery to feature the chief inspector, a solid, if not spectacular, entry in the series. As in her previous Wexford, Harm Done (1999), the author...
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Ruth Rendell, Author . Crown $25 (340p) ISBN 978-1-4000-9842-2
British veteran Rendell (The Rottweiler ) delivers the best novel she's written in years, featuring elderly Gwendolen Chawcer and her younger tenant-in-the-attic, "Mix" Cellini. The unlikely housemates share St. Blaise House, Chawcer'
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Ruth Rendell, Author . Crown $25 (323p) ISBN 978-0-307-33976-8
Bestseller Rendell's riveting new novel in her Chief Inspector Wexford series (The Babes in the Wood , etc.) links two disparate worlds—a child-surrogacy ring and the construction trade. A teenage mother, Amber Marshalson, is found dead in
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Ruth Rendell, Author . Crown $25.95 (340p) ISBN 978-0-307-38136-1
T hree-time Edgar Award–winner Rendell (13 Steps Down ) often creates fragile characters, trembling on the edge of losing a lover, child, job, solvency or sanity. Slashing through their world is a “wild card,” an obsessive or a...
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Ruth Rendell, Author . Scribner $26 (287p) ISBN 978-1-4391-5033-7
In Edgar-winner Rendell's 22nd Inspector Wexford novel (after 2007's Not in the Flesh ), the British police detective confronts a man from his past, Eric Targo, who he suspects is guilty of multiple murders. Years earlier, Targo stalked...
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Ruth Rendell, Scribner, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4391-4851-8
London's Portobello Road, a street fabled for its shops and outdoor market, provides the backdrop for Edgar-winner Rendell's superlative suspense novel, which features a cast of colorful characters from varied classes and walks of life. Secretive 50-
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Ruth Rendell, Author Fawcett Books $7.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-345-35994-0
Elderly Gwen Robson is found murdered in a shopping-mall garage and Inspector Wexford and partner Mike Burden investigate. ``Rendell's reputation for literary grace, ingenious plots and arresting characters is borne out again in her latest stunning...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Fawcett Books $7.5 (320p) ISBN 978-0-345-31200-6
Mrs. Archdale, who is recovering from mental illness, visits her daughter Benet, a young, successful London author, and grandson James. Across town, Barry Mahon devotes himself to pleasing Carol Stratfordwho has a slew of other boyfriendsand takes...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Mysterious Press $32 (272p) ISBN 978-0-89296-389-8
Rendell ( The Bridesmaid ) is near the top of her form in this icy, arresting tale of obsessive love. As a 14-year-old scuffling his way up in the London drug and protection rackets, Guy Curran fell for Leonora Chisholm, a girl from a gentler, upper-
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Ruth Rendell, Author Mysterious Press $4.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-446-40028-2
Obsessive and booze-influenced Guy Curran, paranoid that his childhood sweetheart spurned him on the advice of her family, hires a hit man to take out the offending parties. ``Rendell is a master of depicting the long, slow slide into madness,...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Warner Books $4.99 (0p) ISBN 978-0-446-40055-8
Nine tales from the Edgar-winning British doyenne of suspense, most of which delight with their fine-tuned psychological effects. BOMC alternate in cloth. (Sept.)
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Ruth Rendell, Author Dell Publishing Company $6.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-440-22202-6
The latest Chief Inspector Wexford mystery, in which a small town's racism turns deadly. (Sept.)
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Ruth Rendell, Author Pantheon Books $13.95 (172p) ISBN 978-0-394-54813-5
The title story in Rendell's latest collection was awarded an MWA Edgar, adding to the honors awarded her by American and British critics. These 11 short mysteries, like the author's novels, are intricate and controlled, written with an...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Pantheon Books $19.95 (536p) ISBN 978-0-394-56942-0
Three MWA Edgars and her home country's top honors as well as critical raves symbolize the British author's stature as a versatile inventor of suspenseful tales. This anthology contains 38 stories reprinted from previous collections, several...
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Ruth Rendell, Author Pantheon Books $17.95 (277p) ISBN 978-0-394-57206-2
Rendell's reputation for literary grace, ingenious plots and arresting characters is borne out again in her latest stunning mystery. Surprises abound in the case that bedevils Inspector Wexford and his partner, Mike Burden. When elderly Gwen Robson...
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Ruth Rendell, Author, Tim Curry, Read by , read by Tim Curry. Random House Audio $29.95 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7393-6637-0
In addition to solving two long-ago murders, Chief Inspector Wexford is troubled by female genital mutilation in the local Somali community. The temptation would be to cut the subplot, but this abridgment retains the richness of the novel. Tim Curry&
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Ruth Rendell, Author, Barbara Vine, Author Onyx Books $5.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-451-40388-9
Vine (the pseudonymous Ruth Rendell) offers a lyrical, leisurely paced psychological thriller that teems with deftly drawn characters who inhabit a dark world centered in the London Underground. (June)
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Barbara Vine, Author, Ruth Rendell, Author Onyx Books $4.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-451-40211-0
Who is the sad, reflective narrator, and what illness might she have? What hold does the tall, dark woman called Bell have on her? And what happened at the carefully described House of Stairs in London that sent Bell to prison? PW called this...
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Barbara Vine, Author, Ruth Rendell, Author Shaye Areheart Books $22 (0p) ISBN 978-0-517-58796-6
From the pen of Edgar-winner Ruth Rendell's suspense-writing doppleganger Vine ( A Dark-Adapted Eye ) comes a sixth adroitly fashioned novel of insidious psychological dimensions. Anna, an uncompromising Danish wife stranded by her husband in 1905...
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ARTICLES
  • PW Talks with Ruth Rendell
  • Mad Cats and an Englishwoman: Ruth Rendell
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