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A review by saareman
Shake Hands Forever by Ruth Rendell
4.0
Wexford's Chimera
Review of the Arrow Books paperback edition (1976/1985 reprint) of the original Hutchinson hardcover (1975)
Ruth Rendell continues to impress me with another of my 1980's re-reads. Shake Hands for Ever (most later editions show the title as Shake Hands Forever), is listed as No. 9 in her Inspector Wexford series (1964-2013).
Angela Hathall has been strangled in her cottage in West Sussex. She was discovered by her mother-in-law and husband as they came for a weekend visit. The husband Robert Hathall was commuting weekly to London for work. The trip had been meant as a reconciliation of Hathall's mother with Angela, his 2nd wife, with whom there had been an earlier quarrel. Wexford has a theory about the crime, but no one else believes him, especially his Chief Constable Charles Griswold. After complaints by the husband, he is taken off the case.
Despite having to work the case unofficially, Wexford persists in having Hathall occasionally followed in London by paying off an old contact and by calling in favours from his nephew Howard Fortune, a Chief Superintendent of CID in London. Over the course of 15 months, Wexford continues to hope that the case will catch a break and that Hathall and a co-conspirator will be discovered. He is continually disappointed until a chance coincidence ties Hathall into an apparently unrelated payroll fraud. It all leads to a final dramatic conclusion with a shocking twist reveal by Wexford.
Cover of the original Hutchinson hardcover (1975). Image sourced from Wikipedia.
Rendell also plays a sly game with readers by introducing a suspiciously attractive neighbour widow Nancy Lake, who was a partial witness to events at the murder cottage. Lake seems especially drawn to Wexford and flirtatiously arranges to keep meeting him throughout the course of the investigation. Is she somehow involved in the crime or is the Inspector that much of a romantic interest to her? Rendell teasingly leaves their final meeting to your imagination: Did Wexford or didn't he cheat on his faithful wife Dora? Your opinion of Wexford's character, based on the previous 8 novels, will determine your answer to that question.
I re-read Shake Hands for Ever due to the discovery of a hoard of my old 1980's mystery paperbacks while cleaning out a storage locker. I only have a few of the old Ruth Rendell paperbacks, so this isn't the start of one of my complete binge re-reads. Rendell is definitely one of the masters of the Silver Age of Crime though, so I will certainly be re-reading several of her books.
Trivia and Links
Shake Hands Forever was adapted for television as part of the long running series of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987-2000), sometimes called 'The Inspector Wexford Mysteries'. It ran as Episodes 4 to 6 of Series 2 in 1988. The entire 3 Episodes can be viewed on YouTube here. The TV series stars actor George Baker as Inspector Wexford.
Review of the Arrow Books paperback edition (1976/1985 reprint) of the original Hutchinson hardcover (1975)
Ruth Rendell continues to impress me with another of my 1980's re-reads. Shake Hands for Ever (most later editions show the title as Shake Hands Forever), is listed as No. 9 in her Inspector Wexford series (1964-2013).
Angela Hathall has been strangled in her cottage in West Sussex. She was discovered by her mother-in-law and husband as they came for a weekend visit. The husband Robert Hathall was commuting weekly to London for work. The trip had been meant as a reconciliation of Hathall's mother with Angela, his 2nd wife, with whom there had been an earlier quarrel. Wexford has a theory about the crime, but no one else believes him, especially his Chief Constable Charles Griswold. After complaints by the husband, he is taken off the case.
Despite having to work the case unofficially, Wexford persists in having Hathall occasionally followed in London by paying off an old contact and by calling in favours from his nephew Howard Fortune, a Chief Superintendent of CID in London. Over the course of 15 months, Wexford continues to hope that the case will catch a break and that Hathall and a co-conspirator will be discovered. He is continually disappointed until a chance coincidence ties Hathall into an apparently unrelated payroll fraud. It all leads to a final dramatic conclusion with a shocking twist reveal by Wexford.
Cover of the original Hutchinson hardcover (1975). Image sourced from Wikipedia.
Rendell also plays a sly game with readers by introducing a suspiciously attractive neighbour widow Nancy Lake, who was a partial witness to events at the murder cottage. Lake seems especially drawn to Wexford and flirtatiously arranges to keep meeting him throughout the course of the investigation. Is she somehow involved in the crime or is the Inspector that much of a romantic interest to her? Rendell teasingly leaves their final meeting to your imagination: Did Wexford or didn't he cheat on his faithful wife Dora? Your opinion of Wexford's character, based on the previous 8 novels, will determine your answer to that question.
I re-read Shake Hands for Ever due to the discovery of a hoard of my old 1980's mystery paperbacks while cleaning out a storage locker. I only have a few of the old Ruth Rendell paperbacks, so this isn't the start of one of my complete binge re-reads. Rendell is definitely one of the masters of the Silver Age of Crime though, so I will certainly be re-reading several of her books.
Trivia and Links
Shake Hands Forever was adapted for television as part of the long running series of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987-2000), sometimes called 'The Inspector Wexford Mysteries'. It ran as Episodes 4 to 6 of Series 2 in 1988. The entire 3 Episodes can be viewed on YouTube here. The TV series stars actor George Baker as Inspector Wexford.