Inspector Wexford is one of my favorite fictional detectives (right up there with Kurt Wallander and Precious Ramotswe), so I was thrilled to see that there is a new Ruth Rendell novel out.  I was under the impression that she was going to "retire" Reg Wexford, but although he is retired from the police force, he is by no means retired with investigating crime as we see in the book No Man's Nightingale.

The book opens with the discovery of the murder of vicar Sarah Hussain.  Sarah and her 17 year old daughter Clarissa lived in the vicarage, but Sarah didn't have many close friends.  Therefore, it's rather puzzling as to who could dislike her enough to want to strangle her.  Detective Superintendent Mike Burden, formerly Wexford's subordinate, is now in charge of the case.

Since retiring, Wexford has spent a lot of time reading, and when we catch up to him in this book, he's still at it.  He's in the middle of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," but it's not easy to read when you've got a chatty housekeeper, and the Wexfords certainly have that.  Maxine Sams never stops talking while she works, and so Wexford tries to avoid her as much as possible.  Still, her chattiness does occasionally come in handy, such as when she describes the scene when she found Rev. Hussain murdered.  Maxine is most talkative about her own family, including her son Jason and his baby daughter Isabella.

Jason's landlord, Jeremy Legg, is a shiftless layabout who is always looking for ways to make a quick buck without actually having to do any work.  He is separated from his former partner, with whom he rented a flat.  He was able to find a new girlfriend and move in with her, so in the absence of his old girlfriend (who has moved abroad with her new partner), he is renting out his former residence to Jason and his family.  Things are going well until the girlfriend announces she's coming home and plans to move back in to the flat.  Jeremy panics, since the girlfriend doesn't know he's been renting the place out.  Luckily, he's able to convince his new girlfriend to help him buy a new flat that he then convinces Jason to move into.

Wexford, somewhat at a loose end, is thrilled to be kept up-to-date on the murder investigation and to occasionally go out and question witnesses.  Because of his many years of experience, he is able to put everyone at ease and most people have no hesitation in speaking to him.  As in previous years, however, Mike Burden fixes on a suspect and refuses to consider any alternative explanations for the crime -- no matter how weak his evidence seems to be.

At the same time, Clarissa Hussain is nearing her 18th birthday, a milestone which her mother promised to celebrate by revealing to Clarissa who her father was.  Sarah had been married, but her husband died several years before Clarissa was born.  Sarah's one close friend reveals a possible explanation for Clarissa's conception, but Wexford isn't entirely convinced that is the whole story.  Since a new vicar is going to take Sarah's job, Clarissa has to move out of the vicarage.  Luckily, Wexford's prickly older daughter Sylvia has a spare room for rent.  She soon wonders about this arrangement when her son Robin falls in love with Clarissa.

Will Wexford find out the truth about Clarissa's father? Will he be able to solve the murder?  And are the two things related?  Will the cleaner Maxine ever shut up so that Wexford can finish his book in peace?  And will Burden ever take off his blinders and see that, yet once again, Wexford has solved the case?  These questions are all answered by the end of the book.

I enjoyed visiting Wexford's world again, as always, but I did have some problems with this book.  There were many, many occasions when there were inexplicably abrupt transitions.  Wexford would be speaking with someone in person, and in the middle of a paragraph he would suddenly be at home or calling them on the phone at a later time.  Also, the book seemed to end rather abruptly (even though most of the loose ends had been tied up by that time).  I turned the page, expecting another chapter, but was surprised to find that was the end of the story.  Still, I doubt we've seen the last of Chief Inspector Wexford (retired), and that's always a good thing in my book!

Final verdict for No Man's Nightengale:  Three Gherkins, for being a welcome, if somewhat unsatisfying, visit with an old literary friend

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Can we have another Wexford instead?

Ruth Rendell's novels written under her Barbara Vine pen name are always something of a challenge for me.  Although she's one of my favorite authors, I can rarely finish the Vine books.  The style of them is hard to follow.  There might be frequent references to "the awful event" from page one, which I suppose are designed to reel in the reader, but just serve to exasperate me. The "event" is generally not revealed until the very end of the novel, by which time I've long since ceased to care.  So I was a bit wary when I saw that there is a new Barbara Vine book out, The Child's Child. 

This book concerns two themes: homosexuality and single motherhood and how the two issues have become more socially acceptable.  There is also the device of a novel-within-a-novel at play here. 

The story begins with college lecturer Grace being given an unpublished novel, The Child's Child, which was written by a fairly well-known deceased author.  The author's son wants her opinion as to whether or not the novel could interest a publisher.  Grace has recently moved into her deceased grandmother's large house with her brother Andrew.  The house is so large that they can live independently of each other if they wish.  Andrew soon moves in his attractive, but somewhat prickly boyfriend James.  Grace puts the novel aside as she works on her thesis, which deals with the idea of illegitimacy and single motherhood in Victorian fiction.  She gets into some rather heated discussions with James, who says that male homosexuals faced a much more difficult life during that time, as homosexuality was illegal and anyone found guilty of the crime could be sentenced to hard labor. 

While society may have softened its views on both homosexuality and single motherhood in modern times, James and Andrew experience the continuing hostility that gay men face when they witness one of their friends being murdered as they leave a gay club one evening.  They are both potential witnesses at the trial, a possibility which causes James to become severely depressed.  In this state, he and Grace experience a new dimension to their relationship.

At this point, the modern story takes a pause while we are given the full text of the novel "The Child's Child" which Grace has agreed to read.  This story begins in 1929.  John is a teacher at a school in London, and is involved in a highly passionate, but illegal relationship with the flighty Bertie.  He decides to move to a rural school to get away from the temptations of London, and plans to devote himself to a life of celibacy.  A visit home to his parents at this time reveals that his teen aged sister, Maud, is pregnant and unmarried.  Her horrified parents plan to send her to a home for unwed mothers and have the baby adopted.  John quickly takes charge and proposes a solution that will change every one's lives.

The Child's Child part of the book is the main chunk of the story.  None of the characters is particularly likable:  the ungrateful, selfish Maud; the opportunistic, violent Bertie; and the spineless, weak John.  A murder happens, but most people seem rather indifferent to it.  Eventually, the crime is solved, and things go on pretty much as before.  Undeserving people are rewarded and unreasonable demands are inexplicably met without much resistance. 

We eventually swing back to the modern story where there is a bit of unrealistic drama and an ending that sort of fizzles out.  It is interesting how the social problems are contrasted between the modern and distant characters.  A single woman becoming pregnant in 1929, which was seen as the end of the world, is today accepted as the norm.  States are passing same sex marriage laws, when homosexuality was a crime in Britain until, unbelievably, 1967.  The book does make the reader marvel at the societal changes that have taken place over the last century, but the characters in the book are not very likable, either in the present or the past.  There's not really anyone to root for.

On the bright side, I did manage to get through this Barbara Vine novel, so perhaps I'm mellowing in my old age!

Final Verdict for The Child's Child:   Three Gherkins, for being a thought-provoking look at modern social changes

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Skip the book, take in the market instead!

Ruth Rendell has always been one of my favorite authors. I'd wait anxiously for the newest release from her, whether it was from the Inspector Wexford series, or one of her "one off" novels. I recently read The Monster in the Box, which she has said will be the last Wexford novel. I love the characters in the Wexford books, and I've enjoyed keeping up with their lives throughout the 22 novels featuring the characters. However, I did feel that the last few Wexford novels were just not up to the standards of the earlier books. Rendell did keep the events current, dealing with such topics as infertility, modern day slavery and so on, but I felt the later novels were stretching the bounds of credulity a bit too much to be enjoyable.

I was therefore pleased to find out that she'd released a new non-series book, Portobello. I waited and waited and waited for the book to become available in the U.S. She is such a popular writer, I reasoned, surely it will be on sale here soon. Last May, when I was in London, I went into a bookstore and actually held the coveted book in my hands. I thumbed through it lovingly, skimming the text and carried it around for a while, fully intending to buy it. By the time I got ready to leave the bookstore, though, I had already grabbed more books than I could comfortably handle, and I was worried about paying surcharges for overweight luggage. Thinking again that surely the book would be released in the US soon, I reluctantly culled it from my stack of purchases.

Fast forward a year: still no Portobello release in the US! According to the US amazon.com, there's no scheduled release date. I honestly don't understand it. Still, I'm not one to let a little thing like not being able to buy the book stop me, so I began to scour WorldCat for libraries in the US who might be so kind as to lend me the book. I would like to offer a grateful shout out to the kind folks at the Johnson County Library in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, who came through with the book on Interlibrary Loan. You guys are stars!!!

So, after all that, on to the book. This one is really of more interest than usual to an anglophile such as myself due to the setting alone. The events in the novel take place around the Portobello Road area of London. There are plenty of descriptions not only of the famous market, but also of the pubs and neighborhoods (both good and bad) in the area.

The novel really centers around three characters, and how their lives intersect. First we have Eugene Wren, an art dealer who is living an upper-class life with his doctor fiancee, Ella. Next, we have Ella's patient Joel Roseman, who is slowly sinking into mental illness. Finally, there is the young burglar Lance, who has been reluctantly taken in by a distant relative into a crumbling, decrepit house.

The story begins with Joel being attacked (or more likely, having a panic attack and injuring himself) in the street. He is taken to hospital, but in the upheaval manages to lose an envelope containing 115 pounds. This envelope is found by Eugene. Since Eugene doesn't need the money from this sudden windfall, and since he's frequently seen "lost cat" posters in his neighborhood, he hits on the idea of posting fliers in the area saying he's found a sum of cash "between 90 and 160 pounds" and asking anyone who lost the money to contact him. Naturally, opportunistic Lance sees the notice and immediately decides to try his luck. He contacts Eugene, who asks Lance to come to his house to explain how much money he lost and where he lost it. Now, I know Eugene is supposed to be a somewhat trusting and naive soul, but it makes no sense at all that he wouldn't just ask the person over the phone how much he'd lost, rather than inviting him to his house. Once Lance arrives, he is immediately impressed by the vast art treasures on display in Eugene's house, and he instantly starts working on a plan to break in. He guesses the wrong amount of money for the lost loot, and is shown the door.

At the same time, Eugene has shown a propensity for addictive behavior. He has been able to overcome an addiction to alcohol, but is putting on weight. In an attempt to stop overeating, he begins to buy a new sugar-free candy, Chocorange. In another odd twist in the story, he becomes secretive and ashamed about the candy, hiding massive amounts in his house and inventing excuses to be alone so he can eat them. His hidden addiction nearly costs him everything, and it is inexplicable. Why is he so secretive and ashamed about eating some candy? It's not very believable . . .

Joel is extremely isolated, although he is financially well cared for as his executive father supports him. He becomes overly dependent on Ella, Eugene's fiance, when she visits him in the hospital to deliver the money Eugene found. He continues to call her to his house as his condition worsens. Ella attempts to get him to see therapists and gets carers in to stay with him, but he continues to deteriorate.

In the meantime, Lance is being threatened by the new man in his ex-girlfriend's life. Lance was living with the glamorous Gemma, but he punched her in the mouth when she asked him to get a job. She threw him out, and now Lance is informed he must come up with 1000 pounds to pay for the tooth Gemma lost when he punched her, or else. Lance uses his burglary skills to try to come up with the money. In the meantime, Gemma has come back around and is visiting Lance secretly at his new home with his great uncle. This is yet another twist in the story that doesn't ring true. Gemma is described as looking like Paris Hilton, or as if she just came off a catwalk and lives in an immaculate flat. Why in the world would she want to hook up with a smelly, unemployed, unmotivated man who had already abused her???

There is another unbelievable turn in the story when one of a pair of criminals attempts to convince his cohort in crime that they must go to the police and confess. Why didn't he just go to the police himself???

While there are plenty of bad events and a few deaths in the story, these things end up improving the lives of the people who survive. I just wish the way they got there had been a bit more realistic.

Final verdict for Portobello: Three Gherkins, for a great setting but ultimately peculiar and outlandish plot twists

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Not such a scary monster after all

The Monster in the Box by Ruth Rendell is the 22nd, and reportedly last novel that features her Inspector Wexford character. First introduced in 1964's From Doon With Death, Wexford has had to confront a variety of murder cases and social issues all while dealing with his conflicted feelings about his family (he loves his actress daughter Sheila more than her prickly social worker sister Sylvia).

In his latest outing, Inspector Wexford is confronted by a specter from his past, the evil Eric Targo. Although Wexford has never actually been able to prove it, he has long suspected that Targo has been: a) responsible for a number of murders attributed to others and b) stalking Wexford. Apparently, these suspicions have stretched back to Wexford's very first case on the police force. Why we've just now heard about this Targo character, after 46 years and 22 books, is not explained (other than Wexford telling his side-kick Burden that "no one would believe it"). We readers have been inside Wexford's head for decades, so it's odd he never even thought about Targo in all that time.

Still, on to the story. Wexford has noticed that the previously missing Targo (he'd apparently left the area of Kingsmarkham some time ago) is suddenly back in town. He isn't really doing anything sinister, but Wexford is suspicious. At the same time, Burden's teacher wife Jenny becomes convinced that one of her pupils, the bright and attractive Tamima Rahman, is being forced against her will into an arranged marriage. Although Wexford doesn't want to get involved, a policewoman, Hannah Goldsmith (self appointed "ethnic minorities officer") decides to follow up on the case. This part of the book really stretched the bounds of credulity. Hannah makes repeated visits to the Rahman family and their various relatives, questioning them all about the whereabouts and future plans of the daughter Tamima. Surely it's not accepted behavior for the police to just keep showing up at your house, asking the same questions over and over, when you don't perceive any problem and no crime has been committed? At first, Tamima is said to be away visiting relatives, first in Pakistan and then in London, but later even the family must admit that she seems to be missing. When Eric Targo disappears at the same time, it doesn't take much for Wexford to connect the two events.

I've always really loved the books of Ruth Rendell, but the latest ones have been a bit too heavy handed on the social issues. Her books generally had an unexpected twist at the end that I never saw coming, but the latest ones have been a bit of a let down. I don't want her to stop with the Inspector Wexford series, just to return to her old form of an engrossing "whodunnit" with an unexpected ending. Is that too much to ask?

On another note, good luck to Ms. Rendell who has been "long listed" for the Lost Man Booker Prize for novels that missed out being considered for the prestigious award in 1970 due to a rules change. The novel which has been nominated is A Guilty Thing Surprised, another Inspector Wexford book!

Final Verdict for The Monster in the Box: Two Gherkins, for being a somewhat disappointing outing with old friends

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Chief Inspector Wexford comes to life

One of my favorite mystery writers is the amazing Ruth Rendell. Even though she continues to put out about a book a year, the quality of her work has remained high. For the most part, I am generally shocked and surprised by the endings of her books. The bad guys generally get what they deserve, although there's plenty of suffering among the good guys up until that point.

I was thrilled to discover that many of Ruth Rendell's stories have been filmed and were shown as the Ruth Rendell Mysteries between 1987 and 2000. It appears that not all of the episodes have been released in the U.S. yet. I recently saw two episodes, "Going Wrong" and "Harm Done."

In "Harm Done," we are treated to a vintage Rendell story, with several seemingly unrelated threads woven into an unexpected conclusion. In this story, Chief Inspector Wexford must deal with teen aged girls abducted by a middle aged woman and then released, a three year old girl missing from her upper-class home, a pedophile released from prison into a lower-class housing estate, and domestic violence counselors and victims. Inexplicably, Wexford behaves irrationally and is overbearing and harsh with his subordinates at work as well as his family. This is never really explained, but perhaps if the shows involving Wexford were viewed in order, this progression to short-tempered grumpy old man might make sense.

"Going Wrong" on the other hand, doesn't involve Rendell's long-suffering Wexford. This story deals with a bored rich girl, Leonora, who becomes involved as a teenager with bad boy Guy. Leonora finally tires of Guy's illegal activities and decides that going off to university will be a good time to break off the relationship. Five years later, Guy reconnects with Leonora and wants to rekindle their romance. By now, he is the owner of a legitimate and successful business. Both Leonora and Guy are involved in new relationships, but they continue to meet on a weekly basis. It soon transpires that Guy is obsessed with Leonora. Although Leonora is engaged to the bland William, she continues to see Guy. It is a bit hard to believe that Guy would continue to pine for the somewhat plain Leonora, when he is involved with the gorgeous and patient Celeste, played by Inday Ba.

Eventually, Guy decides to give up his obsession and devote himself to Celeste, but of course, by then it's too late. Some events he put into motion in the grip of his obsession come back to haunt him. Although the ending was a typical Rendell twist, the entire story was way too long. It was three separate episodes, each an hour long. The sections dwelling on Guy's obsession with Leonora were really drawn out and could have been cut down.

As I usually do, after watching the episodes, I looked on IMDB to see if I might have seen any of the actors in other programs. I was especially interested in finding out about the actress Inday Ba, since that is an unusual name. I was very surprised and saddened to learn that she had died in 2005 at the age of 32 from complications of lupus. She was born in Sweden, the daughter of a Swedish mother and a Senegalese father. She moved to London to pursue her acting career, but just as it was taking off, she was diagnosed with lupus, while her mother contracted leukemia. The symptoms of lupus can be exacerbated by stress, and having a parent undergoing treatment for cancer is surely extremely stressful. Inday and her mother worked on a documentary about her illness called "The Wolf Inside." She certainly was a beautiful and talented actress, and it's a tragedy that modern medicine wasn't able to save her. Unfortunately, the only thing I knew about lupus was that it was also responsible for the death of author Flannery O'Connor at the age of 39.

Final Verdict for Harm Done: Three Gherkins for being an interesting multi-layered tale with a satisfying ending

Final Verdict for Going Wrong: Two Gherkins for Going Wrong too long!

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Tidying up loose ends

The audio version of This Charming Man by Marian Keyes was a wonderfully entertaining way to spend a long commute. The story of the four women (Grace, Lola, Marnie and Alicia) was so engrossing that I really hated for the book to end. The four women (and others, as it turns out) were all entangled in romances with the charming but despicable Paddy de Coursy. They were all damaged as a result of their associations with him, but there are, for the most part, satisfying outcomes in all cases. The only strange thing is that the character of Lola, when relating her story, speaks in a very strange manner -- almost in a pidgin English style. I don't know if that was to differentiate her from the other "voices", or to make her seem even more of a kooky free-spirit, but it was somewhat grating at times. As is sometimes the case in novels by Marian Keyes, some situations are dragged on a bit to long, but overall, the book was very good. I always hated to arrive at work or at home and stop the story -- always a good sign in an audio book!

I never was able to warm to the new Ruth Rendell novel Not in the Flesh. I was happy to meet up with old friends Inspector Wexford and Burden, but the events in the novel seemed choppy and forced. Wexford's family was only on the periphery of the story, although we did learn that Sheila has a new daughter named (I kid you not) Anoushka (those wacky celebrity names, you know!). Other than that, she, Sheila and Dora sort of skimmed along in the background. This book dealt with two corpses which were discovered in a rural area, and the attempts to identify them and discover how they came to be disposed of where they were. As she has done in other books, Rendell also deals with a timely and controversial issue, in this case the attempts of Wexford to stop female genital mutilation among Somali immigrants. There are the usual odd cast of suspects, including a writer who lives with both his current and former wife (they refer to him as "our husband"). It was just hard to get interested in the story. There was no "gotcha" ending, which was such a thrilling aspect of her earlier novels. I hope for her next book she will be back to her old form!

Final Verdict on This Charming Man: Four Gherkins, for being an engrossing, if sometimes difficult to hear, story about how four women overcame violent relationships

Final Verdict on Not in the Flesh: Two Gherkins, for being a rather slow mystery novel that never really got going

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In the middle of things, but libraries rule!

Against my better judgment, I started listening to the audio book of This Charming Man, by Marian Keyes. Her books are always very entertaining, and usually hilarious. However, the main theme of this book (as far as I had been able to determine) is domestic violence. Hardly a subject that lends itself easily to amusing anecdotes. The story is indeed difficult to listen to at times, but the characters and situations are all so engaging, that you get drawn into the story anyway. The novel concerns four women: Marnie, Grace, Lola and Alicia. All of them have at one point or another been involved with the Irish politician Paddy de Coursy, and all have suffered greatly for their associations with him. There is alcoholism, physical abuse, loss of self-respect, and other cringe-inducing situations, but the story moves along nicely and keeps the reader involved. I have a feeling that there will be an uplifting ending, where all the "bad guys" get their comeuppance, so I am hoping I won't be disappointed! I have to wonder what is going on with the author, though. Her last novel, Anybody Out There?, dealt with the emotional devastation of a woman after the death of her husband. After building a strong and loyal fan base with her serious-but-funny novels about the wacky Walsh clan, I am wondering why the move into such dark topics? I hope her next novel will be a bit lighter. I don't think she's written yet about Walsh sister Helen, who was a private investigator last time we encountered her. That would make for an interesting story, I'm sure!

On the book front, I am still struggling mightily with Ruth Rendell's Not in the Flesh. She has always been my favorite mystery author (and with the number of British mysteries I get through, that's saying something!), but this book is just not one of her better efforts, in my opinion. At least not yet -- I'm only part way through, so there's still hope that things will turn around. This novel concerns the discovery of two bodies that were buried nearly a decade ago. Inspector Wexford and his loyal sidekick Burden interview the usual cast off misfits and oddballs in an attempt to unravel both the identities of the corpses and what led to them being buried. Somehow, the novel doesn't really seem to "flow" easily. The sentences are choppy and annoying, and the action is slow and doesn't always seem to have anything to do with the story. I really hope Rendell's not losing her touch as an author (although after that many books, I suppose I can allow her one dud!).

I was pleasantly surprised to read recently that Gavin & Stacey's Ruth Jones gave a shout out to libraries. Glad to see some celebrity support!

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