Book description
The tenth book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief
Inspector Wexford.
On a sultry August evening, the bloody body of a middle-aged woman
is discovered beneath a hedge by a small boy.
There are only two things that surprise Wexford about the murder
scene. One, that the only contents of the woman's handbag are some
keys and a wallet containing nothing but some money. And two, how even
in death, her deathly grey eyes possess a scornful glare.
The woman turns out to be Rhoda Comfrey, but there's no murder
weapon, no apparent motive, and no one who actually cares that she
died. Wexford's only hunch is that the clues to her murder must lie in
her solitary London life. But her existence there becomes
frustratingly impossible to trace.
Ruth Rendell is crime writing at its very best. The author of over
50 novels, she has won many significant crime fiction awards. Her
first novel, From Doon With Death, appeared in 1964, and since
then her reputation and readership have grown steadily with each new
book.
She has received major awards for her work; three Edgars from the
Mystery Writers of America; the Crime Writers' Gold Dagger Award for
1976's best crime novel, A Demon in My View; the Arts Council
National Book Award for Genre Fiction in 1981 for The Lake of
Darkness; the Crime Writer's Gold Dagger Award for 1986's best
crime book for Live Flesh; in 1987 the Crime Writer's Gold
Dagger Award for A Fatal Inversion and in 1991 the same award
for King Solomon's Carpet, both written under the pseudonym
Barbara Vine; the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990; and in
1991 the Crime Writer's Cartier Diamond Award for outstanding
contribution to the crime fiction genre.
Her books are translated into 21 languages. In 1996 she was awarded
the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.
