Stealing things from people who had upset her was something Polly did quite a lot. There was her Aunt Pauline; a girl at school; a boyfriend who left her; and there was the man on the plane…Humiliated and scared, by a total stranger, Polly does what she always does. She steals something. But she never could have imagined that her desire for revenge would have such terrifying results.

Winner of multiple Edgar and Gold Dagger awards including the most prestigious Edgar of them all, the Grand Master, Ruth Rendell returns with a novel that pits Chief Inspector Wexford against a quite personal foe: the environmental terrorists who kidnap and threaten the lives of five hostages--including Wexford's own wife. As Road Rage begins, Chief Inspector Wexford is walking through Framhurst Great Wood, just outside his beloved town of Kingsmarkham, for what he tells himself will be the last time. He can no longer bear to look at the natural beauty that will soon be despoiled by the construction of a new highway. Wexford rather despairs of the project; his more sanguine wife, Dora, is active on a committee to save the threatened land. Others are more desperate to achieve their end, and their means include the taking of hostages, including Dora, and the threat to begin murdering them.How Wexford and his dedicated team of police officers race against time to...

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.

Chief Inspector Wexford is in China, visiting ancient tombs and palaces with a group of British tourists. After their return to England, one of his fellow tourists is found murdered. As he questions other members of the group, Wexford finds secrets of greed, treachery, theft, and adultery, leading the distressed inspector to ask not who is innocent, but who is least guilty . . .

In this collection of eleven stories, murder is committed for reasons of fear, jealously, cupidity, and out of 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.

The Monster In The Box is the latest addition to Ruth Rendell's classic and beguiling Inspector Wexford series. In this enthralling new book, Rendell, "the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world" (_Time_), takes Inspector Wexford back to his days as a young policeman, and to the man he has long suspected of murder -- serial murder.Outside the house where Wexford investigated his first murder case -- a woman found strangled in her bedroom -- he noticed a short, muscular man wearing a scarf and walking a dog. He gave Wexford an unnerving stare. Without any solid evidence, Wexford began to suspect that this man -- Eric Targo, he learned -- was the killer.Over the years there are more unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town of Kingsmarkham, and Wexford continues to quietly suspect that the increasingly prosperous Targo -- van driver, property developer, kennel owner, and animal lover -- is behind them.Now, half a lifetime later, Wexford spots Targo back in Kingsmarkham after a long absence. Wexford tells his longtime partner, Mike Burden, about his suspicions, but Burden dismisses them as fantasy. Meanwhile, Burden's wife, Jenny, has suspicions of her own. She believes that the Rahmans, a highly respectable immigrant family from Pakistan, may be forcing their daughter, Tamima, into an arranged marriage -- or worse.In The Monster in the Box, the twenty-second book in the Inspector Wexford series, fans will be thrilled to meet the now-aging inspector in the robust early days of his career. For new readers, no introduction to this spectacular writer and her compelling protagonist could be finer.

A Detective Chief Inspector Wexford novel. The fatal car accident involving the stockbroker Fanshawe couldn't possibly be connected with the murder of a cocky little lorry driver. But was it a coincidence that the latter died the day after Mrs Fanshawe regained consciousness?

SUMMARY: On doctor's orders, Wexford is supposed to be resting. But he can't resist taking a peek into the investigation of a macabre crime.In a vast, gloomy, overgrown London cemetery, a girl is found murdered. A girl with a name that isn't here, and little else that is. A girl with no friends, no possessions and no past.Chief Inspector Wexford has been sent to London by his doctor for a rest — no late nights, no rich food, no alcohol, and above all, no criminal investigation. To add insult to injury, it is Wexford's own nephew, Howard, who is leading the investigation into the macabre mystery. And even though Howard and his subordinates might think he's out of his league, and even though his doctor wouldn't approve, Wexford can't resist just taking a look at things for himself.From the Paperback edition.

Once Guy and Leonora were lovers. Now it's over but Guy can't forget...or forgive. Every day he calls Leo with fantasies about their love and their future. All she wants is him out of her life. But Guy isn't about to oblige. Then Leo announces her engagement and finds out just how sick he is. When Guy tries to kill two members of her family, she gets in touch with her own peril. "Rendell is a master of depicting the long, slow ride into madness, making each tiny step toward the abyss resound with chilling logic." (Publishers Weekly)