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ianl1963's review against another edition
3.0
Audiobook, read by Nigel Anthony; excellent.
Keep returning to the school of red herrings.
A guilty pleasure!
Keep returning to the school of red herrings.
A guilty pleasure!
queencleo's review against another edition
2.0
Quite dated and slow going. A chore towards the end. Probably still value for money at $5 though
readacorn's review against another edition
2.0
Im englischen Kingsmarkham soll eine neue Umgehungsstraße gebaut werden (was das Buch zunächst sympatisch macht, wenn man Douglas Adams -Fan ist). Von den protestierenden Umweltschutzorganisationen gibt es nicht nur gewaltfreien Widerstand. Es werden Menschen entführt mit der Forderung die Bauarbeiten umgehend und endgültig einzustellen. Unter den Geiseln befindet sich auch die Frau des Chief Inspektors.
Dieser Krimi war für mich eher ambivalent. Ständig war ich kurz davor das Buch abzubrechen als es dann doch wieder gut zu lesen war. Das lag wohl auch daran, dass ich die vielen Charaktere eher oberflächlich gezeichnet fand, so dass ich keinen echten Bezug zu ihnen herstellen konnte. Kaum dachte ich daran, das Buch wegzulegen, passierte etwas spannendes um mich dann nach ziemlich wenigen Seiten doch wieder zu langweilen. Ich hab's zu Ende gelesen, wenn ich es abgebrochen hätte wäre es auch nicht schlimm gewesen.
Dieser Krimi war für mich eher ambivalent. Ständig war ich kurz davor das Buch abzubrechen als es dann doch wieder gut zu lesen war. Das lag wohl auch daran, dass ich die vielen Charaktere eher oberflächlich gezeichnet fand, so dass ich keinen echten Bezug zu ihnen herstellen konnte. Kaum dachte ich daran, das Buch wegzulegen, passierte etwas spannendes um mich dann nach ziemlich wenigen Seiten doch wieder zu langweilen. Ich hab's zu Ende gelesen, wenn ich es abgebrochen hätte wäre es auch nicht schlimm gewesen.
sammy135's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
davidlz1's review against another edition
3.0
Well, I must say that when I first started this book, I thought it was going to be one of the worst experiences I have encountered with Ruth Rendell. Thankfully, it was not.
The beginning of the novel did not really take off and it seemed to be plagued with some editing issues. Whatever it was, the flow was just not there. As the book began to unfold I ran into an issue with one of the characters: Inspector Wexford's wife, Dora. I simply did not like her. To me, she was portrayed as someone whose life was defined by her husband. She wanted to be something more and craved the attention of others in order to fulfill a part of that. Her interactions with others really grated on my nerves.
About halfway into the novel, things became decidedly better. The story really took off, Dora left center stage, and the classic whodunit formula began to unfold. Thank goodness!
The beginning of the novel did not really take off and it seemed to be plagued with some editing issues. Whatever it was, the flow was just not there. As the book began to unfold I ran into an issue with one of the characters: Inspector Wexford's wife, Dora. I simply did not like her. To me, she was portrayed as someone whose life was defined by her husband. She wanted to be something more and craved the attention of others in order to fulfill a part of that. Her interactions with others really grated on my nerves.
About halfway into the novel, things became decidedly better. The story really took off, Dora left center stage, and the classic whodunit formula began to unfold. Thank goodness!
anieeereads's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
4.0
Road Rage (1997) by Ruth Rendell focuses on the unrest that takes over the Kingsmarkham area when a beautiful valley is destined to be broken up to make way for a new highway. Environmentalist groups of all sorts descend on Kingsmarkham for protests and some of the groups set up camps in the wooded area and even construct tree houses to live in. In the midst of all this, the body of a young German woman who had gone missing some time ago is discovered in the brambles destined for the bulldozer. She had been raped and strangled and Inspector Mike Burden is convinced that one of the drivers for Contemporary Cars, a new taxi service, is the culprit, but he and Chief Inspector Wexford are unable to find enough evidence to make a charge stick.
Later that summer, Contemporary Cars is again in the police eye when a group calling themselves the "Sacred Globe" take over the taxi service for a few hours and take five prospective passengers as hostages. Their demands are simple--give them plenty of publicity and stop the construction of the highway. A hostage situation is bad enough, but it's made worse for Wexford because one of the hostages is his wife Dora. Wexford and his team are in a race against time to find out where the hostages are kept before the Sacred Globe makes good on their promise to kill the hostages one by one if their demands are not met.
When the group finally lets Dora go, Wexford's team gets a great deal of information. Since Dora is the wife of a policeman, she was well aware of the type of details she needed to pay attention to. Even though she was prevented from seeing where she was being taken, she tried to glean every bit of detail she could and was able to give a limited description of her captors even though they were hooded. To enhance her memories, she agrees to hypnosis which brings out a few more details about her surroundings. There are also clues found on her clothes and the police have many leads to follow up. But just how clever are the kidnappers? Have they managed to lay a few false trails and, if so, will Wexford's team be able to sift through the red herrings to find true answer?
This is one of the more suspenseful of the Wexford novels. Generally, Rendell's suspense novels are stand-alones, with the Wexford novels following more standard police procedural lines. Of course, a great deal of the suspense is conveyed to the reader through Wexford and his doubled concern for the hostages with his wife being among their number. It has been quite some time since read Rendell on a regular basis, but it's my sense that this one the better novels in her later works. It's a good solid mystery with some clever plotting and it gives a good look at the environmentalist groups and protests of the late 1980s and 1990s. ★★★ and 1/2. [rounded up here]
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
Later that summer, Contemporary Cars is again in the police eye when a group calling themselves the "Sacred Globe" take over the taxi service for a few hours and take five prospective passengers as hostages. Their demands are simple--give them plenty of publicity and stop the construction of the highway. A hostage situation is bad enough, but it's made worse for Wexford because one of the hostages is his wife Dora. Wexford and his team are in a race against time to find out where the hostages are kept before the Sacred Globe makes good on their promise to kill the hostages one by one if their demands are not met.
When the group finally lets Dora go, Wexford's team gets a great deal of information. Since Dora is the wife of a policeman, she was well aware of the type of details she needed to pay attention to. Even though she was prevented from seeing where she was being taken, she tried to glean every bit of detail she could and was able to give a limited description of her captors even though they were hooded. To enhance her memories, she agrees to hypnosis which brings out a few more details about her surroundings. There are also clues found on her clothes and the police have many leads to follow up. But just how clever are the kidnappers? Have they managed to lay a few false trails and, if so, will Wexford's team be able to sift through the red herrings to find true answer?
This is one of the more suspenseful of the Wexford novels. Generally, Rendell's suspense novels are stand-alones, with the Wexford novels following more standard police procedural lines. Of course, a great deal of the suspense is conveyed to the reader through Wexford and his doubled concern for the hostages with his wife being among their number. It has been quite some time since read Rendell on a regular basis, but it's my sense that this one the better novels in her later works. It's a good solid mystery with some clever plotting and it gives a good look at the environmentalist groups and protests of the late 1980s and 1990s. ★★★ and 1/2. [rounded up here]
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
ava_catherine's review against another edition
4.0
As always, I enjoy reading an Inspector Wexford mystery because he is such an interesting character. Ruth Rendell writes a tight mystery with just enough clues to keep me wound up in the troubles of her characters until the end.
kbluvsimon's review against another edition
3.0
Slow start but suspenseful and I only half solved the mystery. Very good Wexford book.
nikkimcgee's review against another edition
2.0
I only read this because I watched the first half on TV and wanted to know who did it.
I flitted between listening to an audio book and reading this , as I found a copy in Oxfam for 99p.
I do quite like murder mysteries but I won't be reading another Rendell. This was slow, too many characters and very dated. There was also something rather unpleasant about the way that Rendell describes characters, especially women , almost Daily Mail like .
Despite my boredom, the overly complex plot and proliferation of characters I worked out who the culprits were quite early on in the book.
I flitted between listening to an audio book and reading this , as I found a copy in Oxfam for 99p.
I do quite like murder mysteries but I won't be reading another Rendell. This was slow, too many characters and very dated. There was also something rather unpleasant about the way that Rendell describes characters, especially women , almost Daily Mail like .
Despite my boredom, the overly complex plot and proliferation of characters I worked out who the culprits were quite early on in the book.