Best Selling Books by Ruth Rendell

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 and untimely death, Murder Being Once Done is Rendell at her most sublime. With her Inspector Wexford novels, Ruth Rendell, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, has added layers of depth, realism and unease to the classic English mystery. For the canny, tireless, and unflappable policeman is an unblinking observer of human nature, whose study has taught him that under certain circumstances the most unlikely people are capable of the most appalling crimes.

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 extraordinary about Margaret Parsons, a timid housewife in the quiet town of Kingsmarkham, a woman devoted to her garden, her kitchen, her husband. Except that Margaret Parsons is dead, brutally strangled, her body abandoned in the nearby woods. Who would kill someone with nothing to hide? Inspector Wexford, the formidable chief of police, feels baffled -- until he discovers Margaret''s dark secret: a trove of rare books, each volume breathlessly inscribed by a passionate lover identified only as Doon. As Wexford delves deeper into both Mrs. Parsons’ past and the wary community circling round her memory like wolves, the case builds with relentless momentum to a surprise finale as clever as it is blindsiding. In From Doon with Death, Ruth Rendell instantly mastered the form that would become synonymous with her name. Chilling, richly characterized, and ingeniously constructed, this is psychological suspense at its very finest. Praise for From Doon with Death “One of the most remarkable novelists of her generation.”—People “She has transcended her genre by her remarkable imaginative power to explore and illuminate the dark corners of the human psyche.”—P.D. James

He was young, arrogant, wealthy and in the bloom of health—or was he? “Undoubtedly one of the best writers of English mysteries and chiller-killer plots.”—The Los Angeles Times Like any small community, Linchester has its intrigues: love affairs, money problems, unhappy marriages. But the gossip is elevated to new heights when young Patrick Selby dies on the very night of his beautiful wife’s birthday party. The whole neighborhood was there, witness to the horrible attack of wasp stings Patrick suffered at the end of the evening. But did Patrick die of a wasp sting? Dr. Greenleaf thinks not. Heart failure, more likely. Still, Greenleaf isn’t at peace about his death. After all, everyone in Linchester hated Patrick. With the help of a certain naturalist, Dr. Greenleaf begins to think about murder. . . . “Rendell is awfully good.”—The New York Times Book Review

An "obsessively readable" mystery from the New York Times–bestselling author of Dark Corners about a century-old diary that holds clues to a murder ( The Sunday Telegraph). Asta Westerby is lonely. In 1905, shortly after coming to East London from Denmark with her husband and their two little boys, she feels like a stranger in a strange land. And it doesn''t help that her husband is constantly away on business. Fortunately, she finds solace in her diary—and she continues to do so until 1967. Decades later, her granddaughter, Ann, finds the journal, and it becomes a literary sensation, offering an intimate view of Edwardian life. But it also appears to hold the key to an unsolved murder and the disappearance of a child. A modern masterpiece by the Edgar Award–winning author of the Inspector Wexford Mysteries, and an excellent choice for readers of P. D. James, Ian Rankin, or Scott Turow, Asta''s Book is at once a crime story, a historical novel, and a psychological portrait told through the diary itself and through Ann, who is bent on unlocking the journal''s excised mystery.

A psychological thriller about an isolated young woman and her murderous mother from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Girl Next Door. Far from London, the isolated estate called Shrove House looms over the English countryside. Inside, two women hide from the world. For sixteen years, Eve has protected her daughter, Liza, from the corrupting influence of modern life, never letting her outside, hiding her from those who visit, and killing to keep her safe. Raised in her mother''s shadow, Liza has never questioned that this is the way things must be—until the night the police come to call, and Liza flees into the darkness. Alone in the world for the first time, terrified that her mother''s murderous past may catch up with her, Liza does what she can to survive. Taking shelter with the groundskeeper, Liza delves into her own past, telling the story of her traumatic childhood as a way of finding a place for herself in this strange, terrifying new world. But she will soon find herself wondering how much like her mother she really is . . . Joyce Carol Oates called Ruth Rendell "one of the finest practitioners of her craft in the English-speaking world." In New York Times Notable Book The Crocodile Bird, this three-time Edgar Award winner shows the talent that made her one of the best.

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 deductive powers come up against the aloof arrogance of pop stardom. With her Inspector Wexford novels, Ruth Rendell, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, has added layers of depth, realism and unease to the classic English mystery. For the canny, tireless, and unflappable policeman is an unblinking observer of human nature, whose study has taught him that under certain circumstances the most unlikely people are capable of the most appalling crimes.

What on earth could have provoked a modern day St. Valentine''s Day massacre? On 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.

Life in the well-manicured London locale of Hexam Place is not as placid and orderly as it appears. Behind the tranquil gardens and polished entryways, relationships between servants and their employers are set to combust. Henry, the handsome valet to Lord Studley, is sleeping with both the Lord''s wife and his university-age daughter. Montserrate, the Still family''s lazy au pair, is helping to hide Mrs. Still''s illicit affair with a television actor--for a small fee. June, the haughty housekeeper to a princess of dubious origin, is hard at work forming a "society" for servants to address complaints about their employers. Meanwhile, a disturbed gardener, Dex, believes a voice in his cellphone is giving him godlike instructions--that could endanger the lives of all who reside in Hexam Place. A deeply observed and suspenseful update to the upstairs/downstairs genre, The St. Zita Society is Ruth Rendell at her incisive best.

Chief Inspector Wexford investigates the circumstances surrounding a blood-soaked hotel room which lacks any other signs of a victim, and the disappearance of a beautiful, promiscuous woman and the bundle of cash she''d had in her pocket.

From a New York Times–bestselling author: A novelist pieces together the murderous past of an old friend—"smoldering suspense . . . literally unputdownable" ( Time Out). When writer Lizzie Vetch has tea with her old friend, Bell Sanger, the women are reunited for the first time in nearly two decades. Limbo years, Lizzie calls them, full of "all the terrible things" that passed between them. Specifically, a murder for which Bell served time, and has only recently been released from prison. Seemingly out of kindness, Lizzie agrees to let Bell move back into the House of Stairs, the five-story Notting Hill boardinghouse where, seventeen years ago, a dreadful crime was committed. Maybe here, among the other odd residents, Lizzie can help pull Bell''s life together again. But is it compassion or something else? Because the more Lizzie''s long-suppressed memories are stirred, the more her motives for keeping Bell close are called into question. As for Bell, she has her own reasons for moving back into the House of Stairs with Lizzie. It''s not to put the past behind them. It''s to confront it, step by step. "Revealed in baleful flashbacks, a chilly obsession takes shape, a convicted murderess and a cruel design sidle out of the shadows" ( The Observer) in Edgar Award winner Ruth Rendell''s "compelling and disturbing" psychological thriller ( The Sunday Times).

A bypass is planned in Kingsmarkham, but before the protestors make their presence felt, the badly decomposed body of a young woman is discovered. Burden thinks he knows the identity of the murderer, but Wexford is not convinced.

Investigating the disappearance of a missing girl, Chief Inspector Wexford discovers the murdered body of the person who last saw the girl alive and learns of another killing that may be connected

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. But when the sitter'' s smashed-up car is found at the bottom of a local quarry- occupied by a battered corpse- the investigation takes on a very different hue. The Babes in the Wood is Ruth Rendell at her very best, a scintillating, precise and troubling story of seduction and religious fanaticism- and murder.

While Sarah Hussain, the reverend of St Peter''s Church, was not popular with many people in the community of Kingsmarkham, it comes as a profound shock to everyone when she is found strangled in the vicarage. A garrulous cleaner, Maxine, also shared by the Wexfords, discovers the body. The former Detective Chief Inspector, in his comparatively recent retirement, has little patience with Maxine''s prattle. But when his old friend Mike Burden asks if he might like to assist on this case as Crime Solutions Adviser (unpaid), Wexford leaps at the chance to tag along. Upon searching the vicar''s house, he discovers a letter serving as a bookmark, and what he finds inside begins to illuminate the murky past of Hussain. Was there more to her than meets the eye?

Sir Manuel Camargue had just announced his i ntention of taking a second wife, fifty years his junior. On the same cold winter''''s day he died as a result of what was surely a tragic accident. But Wexford doubts that Camargue''''s death came by misadventure. ''