Download or read book From Doon with Death written by Ruth Rendell and published by Random House. This book was released on 1982 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Love And Death,' Said Chief Inspector Wexford. 'Those Were The Only Two Sensational Things That Ever Happened To Margaret Parsons, Love And Death. The Thing Is They Both Happened In My District.'The Police Knew All About Margaret Parsons' Life, And By The Look Of It, It Was Very Dull. Margaret Parsons Had Been A 'Good Woman'. Religious, Old-Fashioned And Respectable, Her Life Had Been As Spotless And Ordinary As Her Home, As Unexciting And Dependable As Her Marriage. But It Was Not Margaret Parsons' Life That Interested Wexford. It Was Her Death. She Had Been A Predictable, Ordinary Woman - But Now She Had Met A Death Of Passion And Violence For Which There Seemed No Motive Or Clue.

Download or read book The Girl Next Door written by Ruth Rendell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When bones are discovered in a tin box inside the tunnel a group of long-time friends played in as children, they reunite to recall their adventures in the tunnel for the detective investigating the case.

Download or read book The Best Man to Die written by Ruth Rendell and published by Fawcett. This book was released on 2012-10-03 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stag party was terrific. The incident that followed was terrifying. . . . “The best mystery writer anywere in the English-speaking world.”—The Boston Globe Who could have suspected that the exciting stag party for the groom would be a prelude to the murder of his close friend Charlie Hatton? But it was—and Charlie's death sentence was only the first in a string of puzzling murders involving small-time gangsters, cheating husbands, and loose women. Suspense is spiced with ironic twists as Chief Inspector Wexford and his assistant join forces with the groom to track down a killer. . . . Praise for The Best Man to Die “You cannot afford to miss Ruth Rendell!”—The New York Times Book Review “For readers who have almost given up mysteries . . . Rendell may be just the woman to get them started again.”—Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine “First-rate entertainment.”—Saturday Review

Download or read book The Lake of Darkness written by Ruth Rendell and published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. This book was released on 2009-03-04 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martin Urban is a quiet bachelor with a comfortable life, free of worry and distractions. When he unexpectedly comes into a small fortune, he decides to use his newfound wealth to help out those in need. Finn also leads a quiet life, and comes into a little money of his own. Normally, their paths would never have crossed. But Martin’s ideas about who should benefit from his charitable impulses yield some unexpected results, and soon the good intentions of the one become fatally entangled with the mercenary nature of the other. In the Lake of Darkness, Ruth Rendell takes the old adage that no good deed goes unpunished to a startling, haunting conclusion.

Download or read book A New Lease Of Death written by Ruth Rendell and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-02-23 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Readers of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon will love this mesmerising and bone-chilling thriller from multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell. You'll be hooked from page one! 'If crime fiction is currently in rude good health, its practitioners striving to better the craft and keep it fresh, vibrant and relevant, this is in no small part thanks to Ruth Rendell.' -- Ian Rankin 'One of the best novelists writing today' - PD James '[Ruth Rendell has a] peerless skill in blending the mundane, commonplace aspects of life with the potent murky impulses of desire and greed, obsession and fear' - Sunday Times 'As usual, brilliant, yes murder but also a lot more, guilt, jealousy and a surprise at the end!!' -- ***** Reader review 'The writing is masterful and the plot excellent' -- ***** Reader review 'Relished every page' -- ***** Reader review ********************************************* SOME CASES ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO BURY. 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... When he starts probing the lives of the witnesses questioned all those years ago, he stirs up more than old ghosts. Wexford's first case was From Doon with Death. Have you read it? His work continues in Wolf to the Slaughter.

Download or read book Murder Being Once Done written by Ruth Rendell and published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. This book was released on 1999-03-30 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Caretaker written by Doon Arbus and published by New Directions Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-15 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lush, disorienting novel, The Caretaker takes no prisoners as it explores the perils of devotion and the potentially lethal charisma of things Following the death of a renowned and eccentric collector—the author of Stuff, a seminal philosophical work on the art of accumulation—the fate of the privately endowed museum he cherished falls to a peripatetic stranger who had been his fervent admirer. In his new role as caretaker of The Society for the Preservation of the Legacy of Dr. Charles Morgan, this restive man, in service to an absent master, at last finds his calling. The peculiar institution over which he presides is dedicated to the annihilation of hierarchy: peerless antiquities commune happily with the ignored, the discarded, the undervalued and the valueless. What transpires as the caretaker assumes dominion over this reliquary of voiceless objects and over its visitors is told in a manner at once obsessive and matter-of-fact, and in language both cocooning and expansive. A wry and haunting tale, The Caretaker, like the interplanetary crystal that is one of the museum’s treasures, is rare, glistening, and of a compacted inwardness. Kafka or Shirley Jackson may come to mind, and The Caretaker may conjure up various genres—parables, ghost stories, locked-room mysteries—but Doon Arbus draws her phosphorescent water from no other writer’s well.

Download or read book A Demon In My View written by Ruth Rendell and published by Random House. This book was released on 2009-11-24 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perfect for fans of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon, this haunting insight into the mind of a pathological criminal is one of multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell's most terrifying novels... 'Rendell is unrivalled at depicting psychologically warped people and at creating unease through the simplest things. This is another triumph' -- Observer 'Wonderful at exploring the dark corners of the human mind, and the way private fantasies can clash and explode into terrifying violence' -- Daily Mail 'Brilliantly written' -- ***** Reader review 'Absolutely fantastic!' -- ***** Reader review 'Mesmerizing' -- ***** Reader review 'Intensely absorbing' -- ***** Reader review ************************************************************************** Arthur Johnson doesn't look like a murderous psychopath; he is a mild-mannered man who has never known how to talk to women. Years of loneliness has warped his mind, turning his desire for a woman's love and respect into a pathological need for carefully controlled violence. Locked in the cellar of his building is the perfect willing victim, a woman who can be murdered over and over again, a woman who waits for Arthur every night...a mannequin in the form of a female. But when a young scholar of psychopathic personalities moves in downstairs and Arthur's mannequin disappears, where will he turn to satisfy his urgent craving for violence?

Download or read book The Monster in the Box written by Ruth Rendell and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author called the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world ("Time") comes her newest novel featuring Inspector Wexford.

Download or read book A Dark adapted Eye written by Barbara Vine and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vera was prim and fastidious. Eden was beautiful and adored. Like most families they had their secrets...and they hid them under a genteelly respectable veneer. Yet their sisterly bond was strained by obsession, manipulation and murderous jealousy. Buried secrets rarely stay buried, and their past still wields the power to tear their family apart. The Green Popular Penguins Story It was in 1935 when Allen Lane stood on a British railway platform looking for something good to read on his journey. His choice was limited to popular magazines and poor quality paperbacks. Lane's disappointment at the range of books available led him to found a company - and change the world. In 1935 the Penguin was born, but it took until the late 1940s for the Crime and Mystery series to emerge. The genre thrived in the post-war austerity of the 1940s, and reached heights of popularity by the 1960s. Suspense, compelling plots and captivating characters ensure that once again you need look no further than the Penguin logo for the scene of the perfect crime.

Download or read book Make Death Love Me written by Ruth Rendell and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-08-03 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The potent and murky impulses of desire, greed, obsession and fear combine with deadly results in this compelling psychological thriller from multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell. Perfect for readers of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon. 'A fine novel of suspense' -- Financial Times 'Rendell's psychological insights are so absorbing, it's easy to forget what a superb plotter she is' -- The Times 'Ruth Rendell's books are not only whodunits but whydunits, uncovering the motive roots of murder' -- Mail on Sunday 'Pretty much perfect' -- ***** Reader review 'Had me glued from start to finish' -- ***** Reader review 'Loved this book, a real page turner with a really good end!' -- ***** Reader review 'A superb work which, as always, keeps you gripped from beginning to end!!' -- ***** Reader review ********************************************************************************************* Alan Groombridge is trapped. Husband to a woman he doesn't like, father to two children he never wanted, and manager of a tiny branch of the Anglian-Victoria bank, he is doomed to a life of domestic boredom and tedious routine. All that keeps him afloat is his one fantasy: stealing enough of the bank's money to allow him just one year of freedom - one year in which to live a different sort of life. But one day the bank is robbed, the manager and cashier disappear and what was once a place of dull and dreary repetition becomes the scene of a brutal, chilling nightmare that might never end...

Download or read book A Guilty Thing Surprised written by Ruth Rendell and published by Fawcett. This book was released on 2012-10-03 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: She took a peaceful walk in the woods—and found death waiting. . . . “The best mystery writer anywhere in the English-speaking world.”—The Boston Globe Elizabeth and Quentin Nightingale. A happy couple who lived quite graciously at Myfleet Manor in the gentle English countryside. Elizabeth Nightingale found peace and tranquility on her nightly walks through the rich, dense forests surrounding Myfleet Manor. But the peace she treasured was shattered one night when she found death waiting in the woods. Chief Inspector Wexford and his colleague Inspector Burden find a most unsavory case on their hands—and must use all their wit and wisdom to solve it . . . “Undoubtedly one of the best writers of English mysteries and chiller-killer plots.”—Los Angeles Times “You cannot afford to miss Ruth Rendell.”—The New York Times Book Review “For readers who have almost given up mysteries . . . Rendell may be just the woman to get them started again.”—Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

Download or read book A Sleeping Life written by Ruth Rendell and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-02-04 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book No More Dying Then written by Ruth Rendell and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-01-26 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will you be able to get to the bottom of the mystery multi-million copy and SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author Ruth Rendell presents in No More Dying Then? Fans of PD James, Ann Cleeves and Donna Leon will devour this with its compelling drama and intricately woven web of murder, mystery, clues and crimes... 'Ruth Rendell has quite simply transformed the genre of crime writing' -- Sunday Times 'Rendell never fails to come up trumps, and her millions of admirers will eagerly consume this offering as they have all the others.' -- The Irish Times 'Didn't want to stop reading it!' -- ***** Reader review 'Excellent book - had me gripped from the start' -- ***** Reader review 'Great writing as always by the mistress of crime novels' -- ***** Reader review 'A must read'-- ***** Reader review ****************************************************************************************** On a stormy February afternoon, little Stella Rivers disappears - never to be seen again. There are no clues, no demands and no traces. And there is nowhere for Wexford and his team to look. All that remains is the cold fear and awful dread that touches everyone in Kingsmarkham. Just months later, another child vanishes - five-year-old John Lawrence. Wexford and Inspector Burden are launched into another investigation and, all too quickly, they discover chilling similarities to the Stella Rivers case. Then the letters begin. The horrifying, evil, threatening letters of a madman. And suddenly Wexford is fighting against time to find the missing boy, before he meets the same fate as poor Stella...

Download or read book Wexford written by Ruth Rendell and published by Arrow. This book was released on 1994 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Three complete Wexford mysteries in one volume- FROM DOON WITH DEATHMargaret Parsons was predictable, ordinary woman, but now she had met a death of passion and violence for which there seemed no motive or clue... 'One of the best' - SUNb>A NEW LEASE OF DEATHThere was no doubt in Chief Inspector Wexford's mind... Painter had done it and he'd been hanged for it. But now, 15 years later, someone wants history changed and Wexford proved wrong! 'A cause for scelebration' - SPECTATORi>i>b>THE BEST MAN TO DIEb>as it just a coincidence that Charlie Hatton, a cocky little lorry driver, had been killed on the day following that of Mrs Fanshawe's regaining consciousness? And was it murder or not? 'The mistress of mystery' - DAILY MIRROR"

Download or read book From Doon with Death written by Ruth Rendell and published by Fawcett. This book was released on 2012-11-21 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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

Download or read book To Fear A Painted Devil written by Ruth Rendell and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-04-27 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 neighbourhood 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.