Harm Done: An Inspector Wexford Mystery (Chief Inspector Wexford Mysteries (Paperback)) - Softcover

Rendell, Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375724842 ISBN 13: 9780375724848

Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2000

Synopsis

The search for the body commenced. Then the victim walked into town.

Behind the picture-postcard façade of Kingsmarkham lies a community rife with violence, betrayal, and a taste for vengeance. When sixteen-year-old Lizzie Cromwell reappears no one knows where she has been, including Lizzie herself. Inspector Wexford thinks she was with a boyfriend. But the disappearance of a three-year-old girl casts a more ominous light on events. And when the public's outrage turns toward a recently released pederast and another suspect turns up stabbed to death, Wexford must try to unravel the mystery before any more bodies appear, and before a mob of local vigilantes metes out a rough justice to their least favorite suspect. In Harm Done, the violence is near at hand, and evil lies just a few doors down the block.

About this title

Product Description:

Harm Done Two young girls disappear then return home unharmed some days later. Chief Inspector Wexford is concerned about a paedophile who has recently been released back into the community but he cannot foresee the series of serious crimes waiting to happen. Full description

Review:

With Harm Done, Rendell has added a remarkable strand of acute social commentary to a book that still functions as an utterly compelling piece of detective fiction. With the controversial subject of paedophilia, she takes the mainstay of her work--problems of modern life--to a level of passion and commitment that gives the book a truly powerful underpinning.

Back in the familiar Sussex town of Kingsmarkham, Rendell's dogged sleuth Wexford is investigating the strange abductions of two young girls: Rachel, a bright middle-class student, and Lizzie, a mentally disabled 16-year-old living with her unsympathetic parents on a grim council estate. When both girls return home, apparently unharmed, Wexford is faced with a curious mystery: what really happened to them? As Wexford begins to uncover the disturbing truth, the dark psychological world that Rendell is so adroit at exploring suddenly comes into focus. And her gift for sharp but concise characterisation remains untouchable as in the case of a reluctant witness: " ''We don't talk about that sort of thing'. She very nearly but not quite tossed her head." --Barry Forshaw

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375724842
• ISBN 13: 9780375724848
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 370