Chief Inspector Wexford mysteries

Love and death are the only two sensational things that had ever happened to Margaret Parsons. The police knew all about her life and, by the look of it, it was very dull. Margaret Parsons had been a "good" woman--religious, old-fashioned, and respectable. But it was not her life that interested Chief Inspector Wexford, it was her death--passionate, violent, and unfathomable.

Anita Margolis had vanished. There was no body, no crime, and nothing more concrete than an anonymous letter. According to headquarters, it wasn't to be considered a murder inquiry at all. But Inspector Burden saw a pattern in the case. Not only had Anita been wealthy and flighty, she had been thoroughly immoral. She also kept her money in handbags, not in the bank. Detective Burden could see exactly what had happened.

The great flute-player Sir Manuel Camargue announces his engagement to a woman 50 years his junior, and three days before the wedding, he is found drowned.

Rodney Williams' disappearance seems typical to Chief Inspector Wexford—a simple case of a man running off with a woman other than his wife. But when another woman reports that her husband is missing, the case turns unpleasantly complex.

Rodney Williams' disappearance seems typical to Chief Inspector Wexford—a simple case of a man running off with a woman other than his wife. But when another woman reports that her husband is missing,

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Winner of multiple Edgar and Gold Dagger awards including the most prestigious Edgar of them all, the Grand Master, Ruth Rendell returns with a novel that pits Chief Inspector Wexford against a quite personal foe: the environmental terrorists who kidnap and threaten the lives of five hostages—including Wexford's own wife.
As Road Rage begins, Chief Inspector Wexford is walking through Framhurst Great Wood, just outside his beloved town of Kingsmarkham,...

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

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Searching for truffles in a wood, a man and his dog unearth something less savoury-a human hand. The body, as Chief Inspector Wexford is informed later, has lain buried for ten years or so, wrapped in a purple cotton shroud. The post mortem cannot reveal the precise cause of death. The only clue is a crack in one of the dead man's ribs. Although the police database covers a relatively short period of time, it stores a long list of Missing Persons....

With several Edgar Awards and a CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for lifetime achievement to her credit, Ruth Rendell is considered a master of the mystery genre. A companion piece to A Sight for Sore Eyes, The Vault finds Inspector Wexford getting pulled out of retirement to assist with a chilling case involving four bodies-three old and one new-found down an unused coal hole. ". an undoubted tour de force ."-Kirkus Reviews