Ruth Rendell
1) Dark corners
Mix Cellini has just moved into a flat in a decaying house in Nottinghill, where he plans to pursue his two abiding passions—supermodel Nerissa Nash, whom he worships from afar, and the life of serial killer Reggie Christie, hanged fifty years earlier for murdering at least eight women. Gwendolen Chawcer, Mix’s eighty-year-old landlady, has few interests besides her old books and her new tenant. But she does have an intriguing connection
...4) Simisola
No one admitted to spotting the doctor's missing daughter—even after the murders began. Melanie Akande, eschewing privilege, had insisted on going to the jobsearch office to find employment. But between that office and the bus stop, she vanished. Inspector Wexford hoped someone would have noticed her, since the Akandes were among...
After celebrated English author Gerald Candless dies of a heart attack at his clifftop home above Gaunton Dunes in Devon, his eldest daughter, Sarah, is commissioned to write his biography. Ever-present in her life, her father was generous, passionate, and talented,...
Inspector Wexford searches for answers after an elderly woman is murdered in this “spellbinder” from a New York Times–bestselling author (Publishers Weekly).
When Chief Inspector Wexford enters the parking garage, the woman is already dead, slumped between two cars, concealed under a velvet shroud. The inspector doesn’t even notice her as he drives away. Only later, when he sees on the news that
9) The vault
12) The Minotaur
A nurse is enlisted to care for the mysterious patriarch of a country estate in this "elegant and gripping" novel from a New York Times–bestselling author (The Washington Post).
No sooner does young Swedish nurse Kerstin Kvist arrive for her live-in position at Lydstep Old Hall, an isolated estate deep in the Essex countryside, than she's warned: "There's madness in the family." Specifically, it's that of
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,
...The body found under the hedge was that of a middle-aged woman. The gray eyes were wide and staring, and in them Inspector Wexford thought he saw a sardonic gleam. But that must have been his imagination. The woman was a stranger. There was nothing to give him her address, name or occupation, let alone any clues that might lead to her killer. Her death was rather unremarkable; it was her life that was a mystery.
Alan Groombridge had a fantasy. Husband to a woman he didn't like, father of two children he had never wanted, and manager of a tiny bank, Alan was doomed to a life of domestic boredom and tedious routine. All that saved him was that one fantasy: stealing enough of the bank's money to allow him just one year of freedom—one year in which to live a different sort of life.
Alan Groombridge had a fantasy. Husband to a woman he didn't like,
...16) Road rage
As Road Rage begins, Chief Inspector Wexford is walking through Framhurst Great Wood, just outside his beloved town of Kingsmarkham,...
There is nothing...
19) Portobello
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
...