Means of Evil and Other Stories - Softcover

Rendell, Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446400505 ISBN 13: 9780446400503

Publisher: Mysterious Press, 1991

Synopsis

What connects a kidnapped baby, a woman's body left to rot in a cove in Yugoslavia, a suspicious suicide and the century-old case of a wife who poisons her husband? The answer: British crime fiction's favourite detective, DCI Reg Wexford.

In the first of five cases, Wexford is brought in to deal with a distraught mother whose baby girl has been swapped with an unknown baby boy. When a local priest discovers the missing baby, safe and sound, on the church steps, the hunt for the missing girl is quickly over.

Mother and daughter are happily reunited, but the mystery of the baby boy remains unsolved. Then Wexford discovers Paddy Jasper has returned to Kingsmarkham, a man previously investigated by Wexford for violently abusing a child. Now Wexford fears the next reunion may not be as happy as the last...

About this title

Review:

"One of the best novelists writing today" (P.D. James)

"The most brilliant mystery novelist of our time" (Patricia Cornwell)

"Probably the greatest living crime writer in the world" (Ian Rankin)

"[Wexford] has become an old friend who gets better with age" (Herald)

"Rendell has quite simply transformed the genre of crime writing. She displays her peerless skill in blending the mundane, commonplace aspects of life with the potent murky impulses of desire and greed, obsession and fear" (Sunday Times)

Review:

'[Wexford] has become an old friend who gets better with age.' (The Herald)

'Rendell has quite simply transformed the genre of crime writing. She displays her peerless skill in blending the mundane, commonplace aspects of life with the potent murky impulses of desire and greed, obsession and fear.' (Sunday Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0446400505
• ISBN 13: 9780446400503
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback