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Chief Inspector Wexford mysteries

Author:
Rendell, Ruth
Rendell, Ruth, 1930
Rendell, Ruth, 1930-2015
 
Showing 1 - 26 of 26
Book cover for "From Doon with Death".
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1.
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Dazzling psychological suspense. Razor-sharp dialogue. Plots that catch and hold like a noose. These are the hallmarks of crime legend Ruth Rendell, “the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world” (Time magazine). From Doon with Death, now in a striking new paperback edition, is her classic debut novel—and the book that introduced one of the most popular sleuths of the twentieth century.
There is nothing...

2.  Sins of the fathers

 
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2.
Book cover for "Wolf to the slaughter".
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Series Volume:
3.
Average Rating:
2 stars
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“[Rendell is] undoubtedly one of the best writers of English mysteries and chiller-killer plots.”—Los Angeles Times
It was better than a hotel, this anonymous room on a secluded side street of a small country town. No register to sign, no questions asked, and for five bucks a man could have three hours of undisturbed, illicit lovemaking.
Then one evening a man with a knife turned the love nest into a death chamber....
Book cover for "The best man to die".
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Series Volume:
4.
Description:
The stag party was terrific. The incident that followed was terrifying. . . .
“The best mystery writer anywere in the English-speaking world.”—The Boston Globe
Who could have suspected that the exciting stag party for the groom would be a prelude to the murder of his close friend Charlie Hatton? But it was—and Charlie's death sentence was only the first in a string of puzzling murders involving small-time...
Book cover for "A Guilty Thing Surprised".
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Series Volume:
5.
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She took a peaceful walk in the woods—and found death waiting. . . .
“The best mystery writer anywhere in the English-speaking world.”—The Boston Globe

Elizabeth and Quentin Nightingale. A happy couple who lived quite graciously at Myfleet Manor in the gentle English countryside.
Elizabeth Nightingale found peace and tranquility on her nightly walks through the rich, dense forests surrounding Myfleet...
Book cover for "No more dying then".
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Series Volume:
6.
Average Rating:
2.5 stars
Description:
What kind of a person would kidnap two children?
That is the question that haunts Wexford when a five-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl disappear from the village of Kingsmarkham. When a child's body turns up at an abandoned country home one search turns into a murder investigation and the other turns into a race against time.  Filled with pathos and terror, passion, bitterness, and loss, No More Dying Then is Rendell at...
Book cover for "Murder being once done".
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Series Volume:
7.
Description:
A young girl is murdered in a cemetery.  And Wexford's doctor has prescribed no alcohol, no rich food and, above all, no police work.  When a young girl's body is found in a London cemetery and the local police, under the command of Wexford's nephew, are baffled, Wexford decides to brave his doctor's wrath and the condescension of the London police by doing a little investigating of his own. A compelling story of mysterious identity...
Book cover for "Some lie and some die".
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Series Volume:
8.
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
A mutilated body found at a rock festival.
In spite of dire predictions, the rock festival in Kingsmarkham seemed to be going off without a hitch, until the hideously disfigured body is discovered in a nearby quarry. And soon Wexford is investigating the links between a local girl gone bad and a charismatic singer who inspires an unwholesome devotion in his followers. Some Lie and Some Die is a devilishly absorbing novel, in which Wexford's...
Book cover for "Shake hands forever".
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Series Volume:
9.
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The bed was neatly made, and the woman on top neatly strangled.
According to all accounts, Angela Hathall was deeply in love with her husband and far too paranoid to invite an unknown person into their home. So who managed to gain entry and strangle her without a struggle? That is the problem facing Inspector Wexford in Shake Hands Forever. Perhaps it was the mystery woman who left her fingerprints on the Hathall's bathtub? Perhaps it was...
Book cover for "A sleeping life".
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Series Volume:
10.
Description:
Rhoda Comfrey's death seemed unremarkable; the real mystery was her life.
In A Sleeping Life, master mystery writer Ruth Rendell unveils an elaborate web of lies and deception painstakingly maintained by a troubled soul. A wallet found in Comfrey's handbag leads Inspector Wexford to Mr. Grenville West, a writer whose plots revel in the blood, thunder, and passion of dramas of old; whose current whereabouts are unclear; and whose curious...

11.  Death notes

 
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11.
Book cover for "Speaker of Mandarin".
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Series Volume:
12.
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“The heiress apparent to Agatha Christie.”—Los Angeles Times
Chief Inspector Wexford is in China, visiting ancient tombs and palaces with a group of British tourists. Is he hallucinating, or does a bent old woman with bound feet follow him everywhere?
Back in England, he is called to a nearby village where a wealthy woman has been found with a bullet in her head. Murdered. He identifies her as one of the China...
Book cover for "An unkindness of ravens".
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Series Volume:
13.
Average Rating:
2 stars
Description:
This Edgar Award finalist from the New York Times–bestselling author is a “suspense mystery of the highest order” (The New Yorker).
 
For London’s Chief Inspector Reg Wexford, it wasn’t an official call. He was just being neighborly when he agreed to talk to Joy Williams about her missing husband, Rodney. Apparently, he went to Ipswich on business and never came home. Wexford has...
Book cover for "The Veiled One".
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Series Volume:
14.
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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

...
Book cover for "Kissing the gunner's daughter".
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Series Volume:
15.
Description:
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.
Book cover for "Simisola".
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Series Volume:
16.
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“Ruth Rendell is the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world.”—Time
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...
Book cover for "Road rage".
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Series Volume:
17.
Description:
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,...
Book cover for "Harm done".
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Series Volume:
18.
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The search for the body commenced. Then the victim walked into town.
Behind the picture-postcard façade of Kingsmarkham lies a community rife with violence, betrayal, and a taste for vengeance. When sixteen-year-old Lizzie Cromwell reappears no one knows where she has been, including Lizzie herself. Inspector Wexford thinks she was with a boyfriend. But the disappearance of a three-year-old girl casts a more ominous light on events. And when...
Book cover for "The babes in the wood".
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Series Volume:
19.
Description:
The mysterious disappearance of two local teenagers and their baby-sitter draws Inspector Wexford into a baffling case involving dark family secrets, violence, a religious cult, adultery, and murder.
Book cover for "End in Tears".
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Series Volume:
20.
Description:
A lump of concrete dropped deliberately from a little stone bridge over a relatively unfrequented road kills the wrong person. The driver behind is spared. But only for a while ... One particular member of the local press is gunning for the Chief Inspector, distinctly unimpressed with what he regards as old-fashioned police methods. But Wexford, with his old friend and partner, Mike Burden, along with two new recruits to the Kingsmarkham team, pursue...
Book cover for "Not in the flesh".
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Series Volume:
21.
Description:
A new Chief Inspector Wexford mystery from the author who Time magazine has called “the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world.”
When the truffle-hunting dog starts to dig furiously, his master’s first reaction is delight at the size of the clump the dog has unearthed: at the going rate, this one truffle might be worth several hundred pounds. Then the dirt falls away to reveal not a precious mushroom but the...
Book cover for "The monster in the box".
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Series Volume:
22.
Average Rating:
2.5 stars
Description:
Over the years there have been several unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town of Kingsmarkham, and Wexford (as a young policeman) quietly suspected that the increasingly prosperous Targo -- van driver, property developer, kennel owner, and animal lover -- was behind them. Now, half a lifetime later, Inspector Wexford spots Targo back in Kingsmarkham after a long absence.
Book cover for "The vault".
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Series Volume:
23.
Description:
When four bodies are discovered in the same underground sewer 12 years after the events of A Sight for Sore Eyes, former Chief Inspector Wexford is pulled out of retirement to follow a complex trail to the original murders only to have his life thrown into turmoil by a devastating personal tragedy.
Book cover for "No man's nightingale".
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Series Volume:
24.
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
A female Vicar named Sarah Hussain is discovered strangled in her Kingsmarkham Vicarage. Maxine, the gossipy cleaning woman who finds the body, happens to also be in the employ of former Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford and his wife. When called on by his old deputy, Wexford, who has taken to reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as a retirement project, leaps at the chance to tag along with the investigators. Wexford is intrigued by the...

25.  Means of evil: five mystery stories by an Edgar Award winning writer

 
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Book cover for "The copper peacock".
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