Most Popular Books by Ruth Rendell

This was an investigation which would call into question many of Wexford’s assumptions about the way people behave, including his own family. . . In The Babes in the Wood Ruth Rendell brings her keen psychological insight and rigorous moral sense to bear on Wexford’s assumptions about the way people behave, including his own family, as he investigates the mysterious disappearance of two teenagers and their babysitter. There hadn’t been anything in living memory like the kind of rain that had caused the River Brede to burst its banks and flood the homes in the area. The Subaqua Task Force could find no trace of the missing teenagers and their babysitter…but their mother was still convinced that her children were dead.

In this collection of eleven stories, murder is committed out of fear, jealously, cupidity, and also sheer compulsion, while the settings include an African game park, a sinister ruined cemetery, an East Anglian seaside resort, and the gloomy purlieus of Epping Forest.

A mother and a daughter live quietly in the rustic gatehouse of Shrove House, an isolated British estate. Their life seems perfectly ordinary except that daughter Liza has been kept isolated from the outside world for all of her sixteen years. And that he has seen her beautiful mother commit murder... more than once. Now, as the police come searching for a missing man, Liza''s sheltered, strange world begins to fall apart. Piece by piece she will reveal her mother''s tale of betrayal, desire, and obsession. Step-by-step we discover how much like mother, like daughter she is.

Death is always solitary. For some, so is life . . . Fans of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon will devour this enthralling mystery of deception, doubt and death from multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell ... ''Probably the greatest crime writer in the world'' -- Ian Rankin ''[Wexford] has become an old friend who gets better with age'' -- Herald ''A cracking good tale'' -- ***** Reader review ''Rendell at her complex best'' -- ***** Reader review ''Unputdownable'' -- ***** Reader review ''A treat from start to finish'' -- ***** Reader review ''Couldn''t put it down'' -- ***** Reader review ****************************************************************************************************** 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.

When Ismay and Heather''s stepfather was discovered dead in the bathtub nine years ago, the police concluded the drowning was an accident. But Ismay has always silently suspected that Heather might have had something to do with it. Now they''re older and their lives seem to be moving happily forward. But when Heather becomes seriously involved with a man for the first time, Ismay''s long-repressed memories can no longer be ignored. With painful inevitability, Ismay learns that she may not able to keep the dark truth hidden forever.

Fans of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon will devour this captivating and compelling thriller from multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell. Mesmerically gripping, it highlights that fame can come at a price - and that that price can be lethal. ''The most brilliant mystery novelist of our time'' -- Patricia Cornwell ''[Wexford] has become an old friend who gets better with age'' -- Herald ''Had me gripped from the start'' -- ***** Reader review ''Brilliant'' -- ***** Reader review ''Rendell is a master of psychological suspense'' -- ***** Reader review **************************************************************************************** When the body of a brutally beaten girl is found in a quarry during a hedonistic hippy festival near Kingsmarkham, Wexford is first on the scene. The victim''s face has been pulped by the back-end of a bottle, but who, in this atmosphere of peace and love, could be capable of such violence? The body is that of local girl turned stripper Dawn Stonor, but it is the unlikely link between this ill-fated girl and the mysterious folk-singer Zeno Vedast that piques Wexford''s interest. Through an intricate web of lies and deceit, Wexford uncovers a history of love and hate that began years earlier. In all his years of police work, he has never been faced with a crime of such desperate passion...

“The heiress apparent to Agatha Christie.”—Los Angeles Times Chief Inspector Wexford is in China, visiting ancient tombs and palaces with a group of British tourists. Is he hallucinating, or does a bent old woman with bound feet follow him everywhere? Back in England, he is called to a nearby village where a wealthy woman has been found with a bullet in her head. Murdered. He identifies her as one of the China tourists, and soon decides to question the other members of the group. When he discovers the secrets they are hiding—greed, treachery, theft, adultery—he is forced to ask not who is innocent but who is the least guilty. “[Ruth] Rendell in top form, applying subtle psychological tints to the familiar mechanics of the police procedural . . . handsomely sculpted . . . Rendell proves once again her awesome skill at probing the criminal mind and conscience. . . . Handled with great originality.”—Philadelphia Inquirer

From award-winning author Ruth Rendell – “without a doubt the grand dame of British crime fiction,” (The Gazette) – comes the chilling new Inspector Wexford novel. 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 ten years or so, wrapped in a purple cotton shroud. The post mortem cannot reveal the precise cause of death. The only clue is a crack in one of the dead man’s ribs. Although the police database covers a relatively short period of time, it stores a long list of Missing Persons. Men, women and children disappear at an alarming rate–hundreds every day. So Wexford knows he is going to have a job on his hands to identify the corpse. And then, only about twenty yards away from the woodland burial site, in the cellar of a disused cottage, another body is discovered. The detection skills of Wexford, Burden, and the other investigating officers of the Kingsmarkham Police Force, are tested to the utmost to see if the murders are connected and to track down whoever is responsible.

« Un grand thriller urbain sur la solitude. » L’Express Le livre : Mary accepte de faire don de sa moelle osseuse pour sauver un inconnu atteint de leucémie. Cet acte généreux met un terme à sa liaison avec Alistair, qui ne supporte pas qu''elle ait subi une intervention chirurgicale pour aider un étranger. Mais l''homme qu''elle a sauvé tient à faire la connaissance de sa bienfaitrice. Drôle, tendre et sensible, Leo pourrait bien être l''âme sœur tant attendue. Mais Mary peut-elle se fier aux apparences ? Tout près d’eux, une menace rôde. Depuis quelque temps, des sans-abri se font assassiner et empaler sur les grilles qui bordent le jardin. Au comble de l’été caniculaire, la peur et l’angoisse s’installent peu à peu au sein de Regent’s Park. L’auteur : Ruth Rendell a été récompensée par quatre Golden Dagger de l’Association britannique des auteurs de romans policiers et un Diamond Dagger pour sa contribution exceptionnelle à ce genre littéraire. L’association des Mystery Writers of America lui a attribué à trois reprises l’Edgar Award ainsi que l’Ultimate Master Award pour l’ensemble de son œuvre. Pionnière dans le genre du roman psychologique à suspense, elle est célèbre pour sa subtile analyse de la société anglaise contemporaine. Elle est l’auteur de plus de soixante-dix ouvrages, traduits dans trente-deux langues. Plusieurs de ses œuvres ont été portées à l’écran. Ainsi les vingt-quatre enquêtes de l’inspecteur Wexford ont été adaptées pour la télévision par Meridian et diffusées sur la chaine britannique ITV : un succès qui a duré treize ans. Plus récemment, en France, François Ozon a adapté au cinéma Une nouvelle amie et Pascal Thomas La Maison du Lys tigré. Son roman Regent’s Park le sera prochainement. Commandeur de l’Empire britannique (CBE) depuis 1996 et pair à vie depuis 1997, Ruth Rendell vit à Londres, où elle consacre ses matinées à l’écriture, et assiste tous les après-midi aux séances de la Chambre des lords. Elle est particulièrement engagée dans la lutte contre l’illettrisme et défend activement les droits des femmes et des enfants.

Chief Inspector Wexford confronts a group of environmental radicals who attempt to stop a highway project by taking five people hostage, including Wexford''s wife.

" On roule dans des tunnels de frisson ! " Le Parisien Le livre : Le monde du rail est l’obsession de Jarvis. Dans l’école londonienne désaffectée où il vit, près du métro, il écrit un livre consacré aux trains. Il en consigne l’histoire, il y séjourne, il en connaît les détours, les dangers et l’excitation. Pour assouvir sa passion dévorante, Jarvis loue des chambres à des personnages atypiques : une femme qui a abandonné mari et enfant pour tenter sa chance au conservatoire, un violoniste prometteur réduit à jouer dans les stations du métro, et Axel, qui nourrit un noir dessein. Au rythme de drames, de faits divers insolites ou atroces, les vies des personnages qui gravitent autour de Jarvis vont se dévoiler et s’entrecroisent dans cet univers qui recèle bien des zones d’ombre. L’auteur : Ruth Rendell a reçu de nombreux prix, notamment un Diamond Dagger pour sa contribution exceptionnelle à la littérature policière. Quatre prix Golden Dagger lui ont aussi été remis par l’Association britannique des auteurs de romans policiers, dont un pour Underground, précédemment publié en France sous le titre Le Tapis du roi Salomon. L’association des Mystery Writers of America lui a attribué à trois reprises l’Edgar Award et elle s’est vu décerner l’Ultimate Grand Master Award pour l’ensemble de son oeuvre. Elle est reconnue pour sa perception aiguë de la société anglaise contemporaine. Ruth Rendell vit à Londres, où elle consacre ses matinées à l’écriture, et assiste tous les après-midi aux séances de la Chambre des lords. Elle est particulièrement engagée dans la lutte contre l’illettrisme et défend activement les droits des femmes et des enfants.

A sleeping life :The 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.

Both a finely crafted mystery and a disturbingly honest depiction of the kinship between love and madness, The Brimstone Wedding tells an unsettling story about the power and the poison of love. A gracious, dignified woman, who''s dying in an English nursing home, reveals the secrets of her erotic past to her young caretaker.

Faith Severn investigates the mystery of a family murder that her family tries it''s best to forget.

Collection of sixteen short stories featuring cats and crimes.

A stranger lures a child into his car with the promise of sweets. A young man spots his fianc?''s double in a public park of ill repute. An executive visits the secluded home of a former employee whose intentions are frightfully unclear. A modest soul weds the woman he rescues from suicide--only to fall victim to an unfathomable form of possessiveness?. In the eleven tales gathered in The Fallen Curtain, Ruth Rendell lays bare the twisted inner workings of the unbalanced mind.