From Doon With Death: A Wexford Case - 50th Anniversary Edition (Wexford, 1)

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Finally, books belonging to that lady are inscribed with the titular name and we strive to suss out who that is. However, I am very pleased to say that at the 50% mark this changed and I became nicely engaged in the story. Add him to my list of preferred readers, pleasantly British, expressive, with good variation between different characters. Margaret Parsons, a fairly ordinary housewife who, with her water board official husband Ron, has recently moved to Kingsmarkham, is found murdered in a field. Unlike other novels, the story is not burdened by the personal stories of the detectives, focusing on the crime and the investigation.

While I did get into Morse in my late teens, I actually never got around to trying Rendell either in print or in the televised adaptations.

It isn’t as brilliant as A Dark-Adapted Eye, for example, but it’s a solid detective murder mystery and I enjoyed it. A good read that is written in an old fashioned style that introduces the main characters and sets up the series. In the 2007 edition of the novel published by Ballantine Books there is a "Dossier" by the author in which she shares, "I realized that I had put an enormous amount of me-and to some extent my father-into him.

The way the book is structured, it will all build to a moment in which that identity is revealed and if the reader feels surprised it will likely result in a rush of excitement and general good feeling. Ruth Rendell’s references to Victorian poetry of love’s longing plays well considering the grief-stricken husband who’s lost his wife. Read them and tell me they don’t add affects that would be hard to narrate without sounding like propaganda. Being one who always gives everything more then one try, I imagine I'll read another of Rendell's books but will not be in a hurry to do so. Next time you meet someone who seems without a single redeeming feature, muse upon what might be found out about them during a murder investigation!

This is a reread for me in preparation for our first Ruth Rendell buddy read in the English Mysteries book club starting May 1. And yet, it is fairly easy to guess who the murderer is (although, it probably wasn't the case when it was first published). I've just reread this novel again after six years, and while I wouldn't change my rating, I will say that it was definitely a pleasure to have taken it up again. I am sure that a proof reader could have easily rectified the mistakes and, although I expect to see them in a self published book, it is unacceptable to find so many in a traditionally published ebook. I thought that there was a fair number of clues for the reader which allowed you to make the leap to the solution somewhat ahead of Wexford and Burden.

Parsons led an extremely uneventful life, being a lay preacher, but Inspector Wexford is intrigued when he is looking through her belongings and fine a number of expensive antique books all inscribed 'From Doon to Minna'. Unusually, Rendell does not make any of the characters particularly sympathetic and that adds to the reality of the crime and suspects. What I mean is that having read other Inspector Wexford books, I know that the author takes time to more fully develop Wexford's character as the series progresses. As the woman's past is investigated the husband is either oblivious or may be among the numerous suspects. Which brings us back to Margaret, our apparently boring, somewhat religious, utterly unremarkable victim.In one of these podcasts, Meredith had recommended the Inspector Wexford series to Louise Penny fans. Given that those starred one of my favorite actors, George Baker, I am not sure quite how I have achieved that. First edition, first impression, of the author's first book, and the first of the Inspector Wexford thrillers. From Doon with Death (the origin of the 'Doon' nickname is never explained in the book as far as I noticed) was quite a clever mystery with a radical (for its time) twist in its reveal ending.

As one reads the novel it's important to realize that it was originally published in 1964 and reveals British law at the time of publication.I have mentioned that at times I have found not having the appropriate context or period knowledge to be a barrier in solving an older crime novel but here I feel that not belonging to the mindset of that period makes it easier to predict where it was headed and lessens the power of the ending. I have mentioned before that my parents’ love of crime fiction played an important role in my formative years.