The Vault

Description

The twenty-fourth book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford. The impossible has happened. Chief Inspector Reg Wexford has retired from the crime force. He and his wife, Dora, now divide their time between Kingsmarkham and a coachhouse in Hampstead, belonging to their actress daughter, Sheila. Wexford takes great pleasure in his books, but, for all the benefits of a more relaxed lifestyle, he misses being the hand of the law. But a chance meeting in a London street, with someone he had known briefly as a very young police constable, changes everything. Tom Ede is now a Detective Superintendent, and is very keen to recruit Wexford as an adviser on a mysterious murder case. The bodies of two women and a man have been discovered in the old coal hole of an attractive house in St John's Wood. None of the corpses carry identification. But the man's jacket pockets contain a string of pearls, a diamond and a sapphire necklace as well as other jewellery valued in the region of GBP40,000. To Wexford, this is definitely a case worth coming out of retirement for.
He is intrigued and excited by the challenge, but unaware that this new investigative role will bring him into extreme physical danger...

Promotion info

What lies beneath a manhole cover in a London garden? The gripping new Inspector Wexford thriller, and a Sunday Times bestseller.

Reviews

"Easily outshines most of the competition on either side of the Atlantic." - "Publisher's Weekly" "An undoubted tour de force likely to offer enjoyment both to readers with long memories and to those approaching it as a stand-alone." - "Kirkus Reviews" Praise for Ruth Rendell: "Ruth Rendell is, unequivocally, the most brilliant mystery novelist of our time. Her stories are a lesson in human nature as capable of the most exotic love as it is of the cruelest murder." - Patricia Cornwell

Author description

Ruth Rendell has won many awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with A Demon in My View; a second Edgar in 1984 from the Mystery Writers of America for the best short story, 'The New Girl Friend'; and a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986. She was also the winner of the 1990 Sunday Times Literary award, as well as the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.