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Ruth Rendell ListingsIf you cannot find what you want on this page, then please use our search feature to search all our listings. Click on Title to view full description
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Ruth Rendell A Judgement in Stone
Arrow Books, Limited 0099171406 / 9780099171409 PAPERBACK Very Good
0099171406 Editorial Reviews - A Judgement in Stone n n nFrom the Publisher n n nWhat on earth could have provoked a modern day St. Valentine's Day massacre? n nOn Valentine's Day, four members of the Coverdale family-George, Jacqueline, Melinda and Giles-were murdered in the space of 15 minutes. Their housekeeper, Eunice Parchman, shot them, one by one, in the blue light of a televised performance of Don Giovanni. When Detective Chief Superintendent William Vetch arrests Miss Parchman two weeks later, he discovers a second tragedy: the key to the Valentine's Day massacre hidden within a private humiliation Eunice Parchman has guarded all her life.??A brilliant rendering of character, motive, and the heady discovery of truth, A Judgement in Stone is among Ruth Rendell's finest psychological thrillers. n nLibrary Journal n n nPublished in 1976 and 1977, respectively, these are fairly typical of Rendell's popular psychological thrillers. Demon presents a researcher studying psychopathic personalities who doesn't recognize that his seemingly shy, harmless neighbor is a total nut job. Judgement finds a police investigator trying to discern why a housekeeper slaughters her employer's entire family on Valentine's Day. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. n n n Loading... n n nMeet the Writer - A Judgement in Stone n n nFact File n n nName: nRuth Rendell n nAlso Known As: nBarbara Vine n nDate of Birth: nFebruary 17, 1930 n nPlace of Birth: nLondon, England n nEducation: nLoughton County High School for Girls, Essex n nAwards: nThree Edgar Awards; Five "Daggers" from Crime Writers' Association, Commander of the British Empire, Life Peer as Baroness Rendell of Babergh n n nBiography n n nFrom the start of her illustrious career, Ruth Rendell's novels have blurred the distinction between literature and commercial fiction. Although Rendell is classified as a writer of mysteries and crime thrillers, her elegant prose and superb literary skills elevate her far above the conventions of those genres. n nBorn Ruth Barbara Grasemann in London in 1930, she attended the Loughton County High School for Girls in Essex, then went to work as a features writer for the Essex newspapers. In 1950, she married her boss at the newspaper, journalist Donald Rendell. (They divorced in 1975, remarried two years later, and remained together until his death in 1999.) For the next decade, she juggled marriage, motherhood, and part-time writing. She produced at least two unpublished novels before hitting pay dirt in 1964 with From Doon with Death, the first mystery to feature Chief Inspector Reginald 'Reg' Wexford of the Kingsmarkham Police Force. An immediate bestseller, the book launched Rendell's career and marked the beginning of one of the most successful and enduring series in detective fiction. n nIn 1965, Rendell published her second novel, a deft crime thriller (with no police presence) entitled To Fear a Painted Devil. For 20 years, she was content to alternate installments in the Wexford series with a steady stream of bestselling standalones that explored darker themes like envy, sexual obsession, and the tragic repercussions of miscommunication. Then, in 1986, she began a third strand of fiction under the name Barbara Vine. The very first of these books, A Dark-Adapted Eye, earned a prestigious Edgar Award. n nFrom the get-go, the pseudonymous Vine novels had a separate DNA, although Rendell has always had difficulty pinpointing the distinction. In an interview with NPR, she tried to explain: "I don't think the Barbara Vines are mysteries in any sense. I must say that. They are different, and that is partly how I decide. The idea would come to me and I would know at once whether it was to be a Barbara Vine or a Ruth Rendell ... The Barbara Vine is much more slowly paced. It is a much more in-depth, searching sort of book; it doesn't necessarily have a murder in it. It's almost always set partly in the past, sometimes quite a long way in the past. And I think all these things come together and make them very different from the Ruth Rendells." n nUnder both names, Rendell has garnered
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6.05 EUR
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Ruth Rendell A Sleeping Life
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard 0099199807 / 9780099199809 PAPERBACK Very Good
0099199807 Product Description nThe body found under the hedge was that of a middle-aged woman, biggish and gaunt. There was nothing to give Detective Chief Inspector Wexford her address, her occupation or even her identity - let alone any clues which might lead to her killer.
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1.00 EUR
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Rendell, Ruth De man die de god van de liefde was en andere verhalen
Uitgeverij het Spect 9027447640 / 9789027447647 PAPERBACK Very Good
9027447640 'Heb je de Times daar?' vroeg Henry altijd rond een uur of acht, wanneer ze de tafel had afgeruimd en de vaat in de afwasmachine had gedaan. The Times lag zoals gewoonlijk op het salontafeltje bij de twee andere dagbladen die ze lazen, maar zijn vraag maakte deel uit van het ritueel. Fiona vond het prettig dat hij het vroeg. Ze zag hem graag bezig met het cryptogram, niet dat vluggertje, maar het échte natuurlijk. Dan zag ze hoe hij fronste en zich vervolgens ontspande wanneer de oplossing bij h...
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11.51 EUR
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Ruth Rendell End in Tears
Arrow 0099491141 / 9780099491149 PAPERBACK Good
0099491141 Book Description nThe new Chief Inspector Wexford novel from the UK's best loved crime writer Product Description nA father's worst nightmare. It's first light and George Marshalson's daughter hasn't returned home. He doesn't yet know that she never will -- that her body lies prone just yards from the family house. Or that he will himself make the shocking discovery. Chief Inspector Wexford has never known a case of a father finding the murdered body of his daughter. He has daughters of his own but can barely imagine himself in Mr Marshalson's position. Tasked with picking through the pieces of a shattered family, Wexford unearths some surprising secrets about the dead teenager's lifestyle. And when a second girl is found murdered -- a victim unquestionably linked to the first -- Wexford has to put his own family problems aside to tackle what will become of the most disturbing and emotional case of his career. (20050217)
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1.00 EUR
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Ruth Rendell Kissing the Gunner's Daughter (Inspector Wexford Mysteries)
Arrow Books 0099249111 / 9780099249115 PAPERBACK Good
0099249111 Editorial Reviews n nFrom Kirkus Reviews nRendell's last few books haven't been up to her extraordinarily high standard, but Chief Inspector Wexford's first appearance since The Veiled One (1988) is cause for celebration. The crime under investigation--the murder of monstrous old novelist Davina Flory, her younger MP husband Harvey Copeland, and her daughter Naomi, along with the shooting of granddaughter Daisy--is thick with mysteries beyond whodunit: What were the two criminals looking for beyond a bit of jewelry? How did they make their escape? What's happened to Naomi's business partner, Joanne Garland, and what's her connection to Daisy's father, George (Gunner) Jones? What links the killings to a fatal bank-robbery a year before? Wexford, ruefully treating Daisy as a replacement for his beloved actress daughter Sheila, who's deserted him for an obnoxious, postmodern novelist, patiently sifts the stories of the large cast, setting off the string of quiet, continuous, steadily deepening revelations of character that are the hallmark of Rendell's best work. No matter that the final revelation is at once surprising, predictable (Rendell falls back on one of the oldest clich‚s of the genre), and anticlimactic. The story marks a masterful return to form for the supreme living exponent of the English detective story. -- Copyright ?1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. n nProduct Description nA bank job goes wrong and a Kingsmarkham detective sergeant is killed. Months later, the Flory family are slaughtered at home by an unknown assassin. The cases seem unrelated. But Chief Inspector Wexford is not so sure. By the author of The Copper Peacock and The Bridesmaid.
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2.00 EUR
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Ruth Rendell Not in the Flesh
Arrow Books 0099517221 / 9780099517221 MASS MARKET PAPERBACK Fine
0099517221 Amazon.co.uk nThe wait is over: here's a new Wexford novel. And Not in the Flesh is one of the sharpest, most astringent outings for Ruth Rendell's doughty copper in some time. Rendell's studies in dark psychology (which have at their centre characters who appear only in individual novels) are the most highly regarded among aficionados of her wok, but the unalloyed good feeling prompted by a fresh appearance for her long-term protagonist Inspector Wexford is something to be savoured, and we are once again in safe hands here. n nA man taking his dog for a walk in a wooded area stumbles across a grim object -- a severed human hand. The body to which it belongs has been hidden from sight for years, as Wexford subsequently finds out. Of course, with the uncountable numbers of missing persons in police files, Wexford is well aware it will be an uphill struggle tracking down the identity of the body. Shortly after, in the basement of a disused cottage, another victim of violence is discovered, and Wexford and his reliable team find themselves attempting to discover connections between the murders. n nReaders might wonder if the production of these utterly surefire Wexford books is an east task for Rendell (as opposed to the rigours of the grimmer psychological novels written under her own name, or the nom de plume Barbara Vine), but there's never a sense of the author on autopilot; this is professional, well-honed, engrossing stuff. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Christopher Bray, New Statesman n`Rendell's genius with the whodunit form works to make everything doubly vital...She is one of the rare breed that makes you feel privileged to be around at the same time as they are' n--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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4.84 EUR
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Ruth Rendell Not in the Flesh
Arrow Books 0099517221 / 9780099517221 MASS MARKET PAPERBACK Very Good
0099517221 Amazon.co.uk nThe wait is over: here's a new Wexford novel. And Not in the Flesh is one of the sharpest, most astringent outings for Ruth Rendell's doughty copper in some time. Rendell's studies in dark psychology (which have at their centre characters who appear only in individual novels) are the most highly regarded among aficionados of her wok, but the unalloyed good feeling prompted by a fresh appearance for her long-term protagonist Inspector Wexford is something to be savoured, and we are once again in safe hands here. n nA man taking his dog for a walk in a wooded area stumbles across a grim object -- a severed human hand. The body to which it belongs has been hidden from sight for years, as Wexford subsequently finds out. Of course, with the uncountable numbers of missing persons in police files, Wexford is well aware it will be an uphill struggle tracking down the identity of the body. Shortly after, in the basement of a disused cottage, another victim of violence is discovered, and Wexford and his reliable team find themselves attempting to discover connections between the murders. n nReaders might wonder if the production of these utterly surefire Wexford books is an east task for Rendell (as opposed to the rigours of the grimmer psychological novels written under her own name, or the nom de plume Barbara Vine), but there's never a sense of the author on autopilot; this is professional, well-honed, engrossing stuff. --Barry Forshaw --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Christopher Bray, New Statesman n`Rendell's genius with the whodunit form works to make everything doubly vital...She is one of the rare breed that makes you feel privileged to be around at the same time as they are' n--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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2.00 EUR
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Ruth Rendell Shake Hands Forever
Bantam 0099129108 / 9780099129103 PAPERBACK Good
0099129108 Book Description nClassic Crime Fiction from "The most brilliant mystery novelist of our time." Product Description nMost people would have screamed. Mrs Hathall made no sound. She had seen death many times before, but she had never before seen a death by violence. Heavily, she plodded across the room and descended the stairs to where her son waited. 'There's been an accident,' she said. 'Your wife's dead.'Chief Inspector Wexford could discover no motive, no reason, no suspect - al he had were his own intuitive suspicions. Probably he was reading meaning where there was none; probably Angela Hathall really had picked up a stranger, and that stranger had killed her. But why such doubt? Was Wexford becoming cynical and untrusting - or was this simply one of the most ingenious crimes he had ever tackled? (20001218)
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Ruth Rendell Simisola (Inspector Wexford Mysteries)
Arrow Books 0099437317 / 9780099437314 PAPERBACK Fair
0099437317 Editorial Reviews nFrom Publishers Weekly nThe latest Chief Inspector Wexford mystery, in which a small town's racism turns deadly. nCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition. From Booklist nYou might think we were dealing with Prime Suspect IV. In racist, high-unemployment Britain, a young, middle-class black woman goes missing, and the last person she seems to have spoken to--an unemployment officer--is found murdered in bed. Unfortunately, the struggle between social commentary and whodunit is so equal--think of two wrestlers, each unable to throw the other--that one soon tires of the sport. What went wrong? Rendell is the finest of the finest, an author who, like le Carre{‚}, often soars above her genre as if using it only to ground her craft. Is the problem the too-conventional nature of her Wexford series, or the too-conventional targets of her social criticism? In fact, the chief target of the author's criticism is an English law that permits wealthy immigrants to bring into the country servants who are part of their household but who are not legitimate immigrants in their own right--that is, who must stay with their masters if they are not to be deported. That these servants are often treated like slaves has not, so far, persuaded the Conservative government to change the law, and this is the source of Chief Inspector Wexford's (and Rendell's) quiet disgust. We're all racists, the gentle Wexford says in the early pages, and the novel goes on to prove him right. But all this, of course, is a contrivance, and the story suffers under the burden; it has little force, momentum, or focus. True, Rendell firing on only three cylinders is more impressive than many firing on all four, but this is still a disappointment. Stuart Whitwell --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Ruth Rendell The Second Wexford Omnibus
Arrow 0099666405 / 9780099666400 PAPERBACK Good
0099666405 Product Description nAn omnibus edition of three of Ruth Rendell's Wexford mysteries. They feature the discovery of sinister undercurrents when an apparently respectable woman is murdered, evil letters that make unspoken imaginings a brutal reality, and the killing of a girl in a gloomy London cemetery. From the Back Cover nThree compelling Wexford mysteries in one volume: n nA GUILTY THING SURPRISED nSomeone must have had good reason to murder Mrs Elizabeth Nightingale on a dark September night. And as Detective Chief Inspector Wexford investigates, he discovers sinister undercurrents and dramatic secrets beneath the placid surface of the Nightingales' lives... n nNO MORE DYING THEN nSeven-and-a-half months after the first disappearance, five-year-old John Lawrence failed to come home. It was only then that the letters began. Evil, mad, taunting letters - letters that made the worst, unspoken imaginings a brutal reality... n nMURDER BEING ONCE DONE nIn a gloomy London cemetery, a girl is found murdered: a girl with a name that isn't hers, a girl with no friends, no possessions and no past. It shouldn't have been a case for Wexford - but it is destined to become one of the most macabre and challenging investigations of his career...
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15.75 EUR
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Ruth Rendell The Water's Lovely
Arrow Books 0099504278 / 9780099504276 PAPERBACK Good
0099504278 Editorial Reviews n nFrom Publishers Weekly nStarred Review. Three-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 sociopath too focused on personal gain to be concerned with damage to others. The vulnerable people at the heart of this taut and enticing stand-alone are the Sealand family, particularly Heather, who's assumed to have drowned her unsavory stepfather, Guy, in the bath while he was weak with illness. A veritable pack of wild cards--including Marion Melville, who cozies up to the lonely and aged in hopes of inheriting their estates after she's poisoned them, and Marion's Dumpster-diving brother, Fowler--keeps everyone off guard. Rendell enlivens the tale with subplots involving various romances--ardent and desperate--and a killer who lurks in London's parks, as well as with pithy comments about class, technology, generational conflict, food and aesthetics. The plot twists in this electrifying read reach all the way to the last page. (July) nCopyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. n nFrom Bookmarks Magazine nIn The Water's Lovely, three-time Edgar winner Ruth Rendell has written a subtle and darkly comic psychological thriller. The prolific Baroness, who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is best known for her Inspector Wexworth series (starting with 1964's From Doon With Death), but she has also produced many excellent stand-alone novels. Most reviewers wholeheartedly praised the book, describing it as "virtuosic" (Entertainment Weekly), suspenseful, and "gleefully energetic" (New York Times), with a "head-spinning finale" (Christian Science Monitor). Even the critics who felt it was not her strongest work had positive things to say about Rendell's deft observations and dry wit. Fans of the genre will not be disappointed. nCopyright ? 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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