Ruth Rendell

"When his father dies, Carl Martin inherits a house in an increasingly rich and trendy London neighborhood. Carl needs cash, however, so he rents the upstairs room and kitchen to the first person he interviews, Dermot McKinnon. That was colossal mistake number one. Mistake number two was keeping his father's bizarre collection of homeopathic "cures" that he found in the medicine cabinet, including a stash of controversial diet pills. Mistake number...

"A female vicar named Sarah Hussein is discovered strangled in her Kingsmarkham vicarage. The gossipy cleaning woman who discovers her body, Maxine, happens to also be in the employ of retired Chief Inspector Wexford and his wife. When detective inspector Mike Burden calls him, Wexford, intrigued by the unusual circumstances of the murder, leaps at the chance to tag along with the investigators. A single-mother to a teenage girl, Hussein was a woman...

"When Stuart Font decides to throw a house-warming party in his new flat, he invites all the people in his building. He even includes the unpleasant caretaker and his wife. As it turns out, the party will be one everyone remembers. Living in a townhouse opposite Stuart's building, in reclusive isolation, is a young, beautiful Asian woman known as Tigerlilly. As though from a strange urban fairytale, she emerges infrequently to exert a terrible spell....

Having published 45 books, Ruth Rendell is an internationally popular mystery writer. She has won four Gold Dagger and three Edgar awards. She has been presented with the Commander of the British Empire honor, and named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. In A Sight For Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell's exceptional literary talent shines from each word. Teddy Brex is a handsome young man. Raised by parents who never loved him, he has grown to...

In Britain, Chief Inspector Wexford hunts for eco- terrorists who abducted five people, including his wife. They threaten to kill them unless the government halts the construction of a highway through scenic countryside.

Inspector Wexford and his assistant Burden unravel the threads connecting the drowning of an elderly, world-renowned flautist and the murder of a woman whose identity confounds them.

Mix Cellini is superstitious about the number 13. In musty old St. Blaise House, where he is the lodger, there are thirteen steps down to the landing below his rooms, which he keeps spick and span. His elderly landlady, Gwendolen Chawcer, was born in St. Blaise House, and lives her life almost exclusively through her library of books, so cannot see the decay and neglect around her. The Notting Hill neighbourhood has changed radically over the last...

Dr Thorne, the third novel in Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire, sees the author steer away from the church politics of the first two novels and move towards the scandals and prejudice of the upper tiers of Victorian era aristocracies.It tells the tale of Frank Gresham and Mary Thorne, a couple intent on marriage despite their conflicting social backgrounds. Frank is engaged in a fierce battle with his family as his mother vehemently opposes...

In Blood Relations, one of 11 stories in the collection, a woman discovers her stepfather's beaten body and says she has no idea who could have done it. But Inspector Wexford is convinced it was a family killing. A tale of infidelity, avarice and spouse abuse.