Book description
The second book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief
Inspector Wexford.
It's impossible to forget the violent bludgeoning to death of an
elderly lady in her home. Even more so when it's your first murder case.
Wexford believed he'd solved Mrs Primero's murder fifteen years ago.
It was no real mystery. Everyone knew Painter, her odd-job man, had
done it. There had never been any doubt in anyone's mind. Until now...
Henry Archery's son is engaged to Painter's daughter. Only Archery
can't let the past remain buried. He wants to prove Wexford wrong, and
in probing into the lives of the witnesses questioned all those years
ago, he stirs up more than old ghosts.
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.
