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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
All I really did yesterday was bake in the sun (in SPF 50, of course) and read this book. I picked up an absolutely pristine copy at the library book sale and decided to make my first foray into Rendell's Inspector Wexford series. Not my favorite Rendell, but certainly a solid showing.
When Angela Hathall is found strangled to death in her country home, Wexford's attention is drawn to the husband. Although by all accounts devoted to his wife, Robert doesn't seem to behave just as a bereaved spouse should. His grief is a bit too studied, he's a bit too impatient for news of fingerprints, and why did he send his mother upstairs where the body was found instead of looking for his absent wife there himself?
Before Wexford can ferret out any solid evidence, his superior orders him to leave Robert Hathall alone--the man has complained that he is being "persecuted" and Wexford's boss believes it's in the best interests of Sussex to leave Hathall alone.
But Wexford continues to investigate on the sly, enlisting the aid of his nephew and of a petty crook looking to pick up funds to exchange for a foul mix of Guinness and Pernod. Wexford is convinced that Hathall did away with his wife with the help of a female accomplice, a new lover. If he can catch Hathall with the woman, he'll know he's on the right track.
I had suspected for a while that the dead woman was not Angela Hathall, and I turned out to be right (very satisfying to feel smart, even though it was more likely just because I've become suspicious of any plot that seems too straightfoward). It was too strange that Angela would be wearing the very same outfit she had worn the first and only prior time she had met her mother-in-law, particularly since the mother-in-law detested those clothes. Hathall's devotion to Angela seemed genuine--the two twisted souls had found one another and now would stick at nothing to stay together.
Wexford finally manages to connect the murder of "Angela" with the disappearance of a woman who once worked at the same company as Hathall. She must have tumbled to his payroll fraud, and as an honest woman she posed a great risk to Robert and Angela. They contrived to get rid of her while laying the groundwork for secretly skipping the country. They are only barely caught before they can depart for Brazil.
When Angela Hathall is found strangled to death in her country home, Wexford's attention is drawn to the husband. Although by all accounts devoted to his wife, Robert doesn't seem to behave just as a bereaved spouse should. His grief is a bit too studied, he's a bit too impatient for news of fingerprints, and why did he send his mother upstairs where the body was found instead of looking for his absent wife there himself?
Before Wexford can ferret out any solid evidence, his superior orders him to leave Robert Hathall alone--the man has complained that he is being "persecuted" and Wexford's boss believes it's in the best interests of Sussex to leave Hathall alone.
But Wexford continues to investigate on the sly, enlisting the aid of his nephew and of a petty crook looking to pick up funds to exchange for a foul mix of Guinness and Pernod. Wexford is convinced that Hathall did away with his wife with the help of a female accomplice, a new lover. If he can catch Hathall with the woman, he'll know he's on the right track.
I had suspected for a while that the dead woman was not Angela Hathall, and I turned out to be right (very satisfying to feel smart, even though it was more likely just because I've become suspicious of any plot that seems too straightfoward). It was too strange that Angela would be wearing the very same outfit she had worn the first and only prior time she had met her mother-in-law, particularly since the mother-in-law detested those clothes. Hathall's devotion to Angela seemed genuine--the two twisted souls had found one another and now would stick at nothing to stay together.
Wexford finally manages to connect the murder of "Angela" with the disappearance of a woman who once worked at the same company as Hathall. She must have tumbled to his payroll fraud, and as an honest woman she posed a great risk to Robert and Angela. They contrived to get rid of her while laying the groundwork for secretly skipping the country. They are only barely caught before they can depart for Brazil.
The story is clever and although it is easy to guess the killer-s the real mystery is around the motives. Sadly it didn't keep me interested the whole way through and I ended up skipping a few paragraphs of descriptions.. I think it all lacked rhythm, thank God the book was fairly short (200 pages or so).