Inspector Wexford Series by Ruth Rendell, Corine Derblum, Nigel Anthony, Robin Bailey

3.72 · 394 ratings
  • From Doon with Death (Inspector Wexford #1)
    #1

    From Doon with Death (Inspector Wexford #1)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.67 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings · published 1964

    When Margaret Parsons disappears, Inspector Burden tries to reassure her frantic husband that she will be back by morning. Privately, though, he is certain Margaret has run off with another man. But then the missing woman's body is found, strangled and abandoned in a nearby wood. And when Mr. Parsons lets the police into his home, a startling discovery leads everyone to question just who Margaret Parsons really was . . .

  • A New Lease of Death (Inspector Wexford #2)
    #2

    A New Lease of Death (Inspector Wexford #2)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1967

    Readers of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon will love this mesmerising and bone-chilling thriller from multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell. You'll be hooked from page one! 'If crime fiction is currently in rude good health, its practitioners striving to better the craft and keep it fresh, vibrant and relevant, this is in no small part thanks to Ruth Rendell... more

  • Wolf to the Slaughter (Inspector Wexford #3)
    #3

    Wolf to the Slaughter (Inspector Wexford #3)

    Ruth Rendell, Robin Bailey

    Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1967

    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. The carpet was soaked with blood -- but where was the corpse?Meanwhile, a beautiful, promiscuous woman is missing -- along with the bundle of cash she'd had in her pocket... more

  • The Best Man to Die (Inspector Wexford #4)
    #4

    The Best Man to Die (Inspector Wexford #4)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1969

    Who could have suspected that the exciting stag party for the groom would be the prelude to the murder of his close friend Charlie Hatton? And Charlie's death was only the first in a string of puzzling murders involving small-time gangsters, cheating husbands, and loose women. Now Chief Inspector Wexford and his assistant join forces with the groom to track down a killer . . .

  • A Guilty Thing Surprised (Inspector Wexford #5)
    #5

    A Guilty Thing Surprised (Inspector Wexford #5)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1970

    The Nightingales were always a very happy couple. If a husband and wife never discuss anything but the weather and are waited on hand and foot, what is there to quarrel about? But someone had reason to quarrel with Elizabeth. Someone who was alone with her in the woods that dark September night. Someone who loved her or hated her enough to beat her to death... more

  • No More Dying Then (Inspector Wexford #6)
    #6

    No More Dying Then (Inspector Wexford #6)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1971

    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 her most chillingly astute... more

  • Murder Being Once Done (Inspector Wexford #7)
    #7

    Murder Being Once Done (Inspector Wexford #7)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1972

    The seventh book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford.It seems fitting that the final resting place of a girl's body should be in a graveyard. But this is no peaceful burial. This is a brutal murder scene.Under strict orders from his doctor to indulge in no criminal investigation, Wexford is sent to London for a break away from the pressures of the Kingsmarkham police force... more

  • Some Lie and Some Die (Inspector Wexford #8)
    #8

    Some Lie and Some Die (Inspector Wexford #8)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.69 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1973

    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... more

  • Shake Hands Forever (Inspector Wexford #9)
    #9

    Shake Hands Forever (Inspector Wexford #9)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1975

    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... more

  • A Sleeping Life (Inspector Wexford #10)
    #10

    A Sleeping Life (Inspector Wexford #10)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1978

    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... more

  • Death Notes (Inspector Wexford #11)
    #11

    Death Notes (Inspector Wexford #11)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.79 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings · published 1981

    Sir Manuel Camargue, yesterday one of the most celebrated musicians of his time, today floats face down in the lake near his sprawling English country house. The consensus is accidental death -- but Inspector Wexford knows the stench of murder most foul when he smells it. Particularly in the company of two suspects -- one, the victim's fiancee, who is too young to be true, the other his daughter who may be no kin and even less kind . . .

  • The Speaker of Mandarin (Inspector Wexford #12)
    #12

    The Speaker of Mandarin (Inspector Wexford #12)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1983

    VG condition book with dust jacket. DJ is clean, has fresh colours and has little wear to edges. Book has clean and bright contents.

  • An Unkindness of Ravens (Inspector Wexford #13)
    #13

    An Unkindness of Ravens (Inspector Wexford #13)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.72 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings · published 1985

    When Chief Inspector Reg Wexford does a favour for his wife - to look into the disappearance of one of their neighbours' husbands—everything he finds seems to confirm his first inkling: that this is simply another case of a bored middle-aged man having run off with a younger woman... more

  • The Veiled One (Inspector Wexford #14)
    #14

    The Veiled One (Inspector Wexford #14)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1988

    Chief Inspector Wexford, injured in a car bombing, must rely on Detective Mike Burden to catch a killer in what appears to be a murder without motive   Chief Inspector Wexford couldn’t know that the bundle of rags in the parking garage concealed a body. He’d just been doing a bit of light shopping, after all, not looking for dead housewives. Wexford won’t be on the case for long; a car bomb sends him to the hospital, and Inspector Mike Burden must match wits with a would-be murderer... more

  • Kissing the Gunner's Daughter (Inspector Wexford #15)
    #15

    Kissing the Gunner's Daughter (Inspector Wexford #15)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1991

    Investigating the murder of a socialite family, Inspector Wexford is forced to face his own deepest feelings. Called "one of Rendell's darkest and most subtle character studies" (SF Chronicle).

  • Simisola (Inspector Wexford #16)
    #16

    Simisola (Inspector Wexford #16)

    Ruth Rendell, Corine Derblum

    Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1994

    In the quiet Sussex country town of Kingsmarkham, the daughter of Nigerian physician Raymond Akande is missing. It's probably nothing, says Dr. Akande to his friend and client Chief Inspector Wexford, whose help he enlists.But the days that follow prove the doctor dreadfully wrong. A young woman is found murdered not Melanie, but the last person to have seen and spoken to her. A second woman's body is discovered, again not Melanie's, but like her, young and black... more

  • Road Rage (Inspector Wexford #17)
    #17

    Road Rage (Inspector Wexford #17)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.81 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1997

    Ruth Rendell can never be accused of writing cozy English mysteries. Even her more traditional detective novels starring Inspector Reginald Wexford are set in a gritty, contemporary Britain beset by unemployment, racial tension, and urban crime. In the absorbing and timely Road Rage, ecoterrorists protesting a new highway bypass take five hostages -- including Wexford's wife. —Dick Lochte

  • Harm Done (Inspector Wexford #18)
    #18

    Harm Done (Inspector Wexford #18)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.75 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1999

    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... more

  • The Babes in the Wood (Inspector Wexford #19)
    #19

    The Babes in the Wood (Inspector Wexford #19)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.78 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings · published 2002

    With floods threatening both the town of Kingsmarkham and his own home and no end to the rain in sight, Chief Inspector Wexford already has his hands full when he learns that two local teenagers have gone missing along with their sitter, Joanna Troy. Their hysterical mother is convinced that all three have drowned, and as the hours stretch into days Wexford suspects a case of kidnapping, perhaps connected with an unusual sect called the Church of the Good Gospel... more

  • End in Tears (Inspector Wexford #20)
    #20

    End in Tears (Inspector Wexford #20)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.56 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 2005

    The first death could have been an accident.  When Mavis Ambrose is killed by a falling chunk of concrete, the police have no reason to suspect mischief. However, the bludgeoning of the young and gorgeous Amber Marshalson that follows is clearly murder. In the midst of the hottest summer on record, Inspector Wexford is called in to investigate. He discovers the two cases may be linked, and that Amber was at the scene of Mavis’s death... more

  • Not in the Flesh (Inspector Wexford #21)
    #21

    Not in the Flesh (Inspector Wexford #21)

    Ruth Rendell, Nigel Anthony

    Rated: 3.63 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 2007

    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 10 years or so, wrapped in a purple cotton sheet. The post mortem cannot reveal the precise cause of death. The only clue is a crack in one of the dead man’s ribs.The police computer stores a long list of missing persons: something like 500 people every day disappear nationwide... more

  • The Monster in the Box (Inspector Wexford #22)
    #22

    The Monster in the Box (Inspector Wexford #22)

    Ruth Rendell, Nigel Anthony

    Rated: 3.44 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 2009

    Wexford had almost made up his mind that he would never again set eyes on Eric Targo. And yet there he was, back in Kingsmarkham, still with that cocky, strutting walk.Years earlier, when Wexford was a young police officer, a woman called Elsie Carroll had been found strangled in her bedroom. Although many still had their suspicions that her husband was guilty, no one was convicted... more

  • The Vault (Inspector Wexford #23)
    #23

    The Vault (Inspector Wexford #23)

    Ruth Rendell, Nigel Anthony

    Rated: 3.56 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 2011

    Chief Inspector Reg Wexford has retired. He and his wife, Dora, now divide their time between Kingsmarkham and their daughter, Sheila’s, coach house in Hampstead. Wexford takes great pleasure in his books, but, for all the benefits of a more relaxed lifestyle, he misses being the law. But a chance meeting with an old acquaintance in a London street changes everything. Tom Ede is now a Detective Superintendent, and is very keen to recruit Wexford as an adviser on a difficult case... more

  • No Man's Nightingale (Inspector Wexford #24)
    #24

    No Man's Nightingale (Inspector Wexford #24)

    Ruth Rendell

    Rated: 3.56 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 2013

    A female vicar named Sarah Hussein is discovered strangled in her Kingsmarkham vicarage. Maxine, the gossipy cleaning woman who discovers her body, happens to also be in the employ of retired Chief Inspector Wexford and his wife. When called on by his old deputy, detective inspector Mike Burden, Wexford, intrigued by the unusual circumstances of the murder, leaps at the chance to tag along with the investigators... more

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