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A review by saareman
No More Dying Then by Ruth Rendell
4.0
Kidnapped or Murdered?
Review of the Arrow Books/Cornerstone Digital Kindle eBook edition (2010) of the original Hutchinson hardcover (1971)
This continues my 2023 binge read / re-read of Ruth Rendell's (aka [a:Barbara Vine|47687|Barbara Vine|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1263385982p2/47687.jpg]) novels and it is the 6th in the Inspector Wexford series. Part of the joy with Wexford is the number of literary quotes and allusions which Rendell inserts into the text, but which are usually not explained. The above quote is an exception as it hints that the name "Mr. Casaubon" is associated with writer George Eliot. We can share and enjoy Wexford's surprise that the small time crooks he meets would have any knowledge of the Middlemarch novel.
Cover image for the original Hutchinson hardcover edition from 1971. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
No More Dying Then is otherwise a novel about a child abduction which hints back to an earlier disappearance and possible murder of another child in the same vicinity. Wexford's assistant Mike Burden is still mourning the loss of his wife and is distracted from his police duties. An extensive subplot involves him becoming involved with the divorced mother of the 2nd abducted child and the reader will become concerned that the woman may in fact be a suspect. The tension increases when the body of the first child is found even while the second is still missing. It is all wrapped up with a twist ending.
Another favourite quote from the book:
Trivia and Links
No More Dying Then was adapted for television as part of the Ruth Rendell / Inspector Wexford Mysteries TV series (1987-2000) as Season 3 Episodes 1 to 3 in 1989 with actor George Baker as Inspector Wexford. You can watch the entire 3 episodes on YouTube
Review of the Arrow Books/Cornerstone Digital Kindle eBook edition (2010) of the original Hutchinson hardcover (1971)
Wexford gave a tiny sigh, the outward and audible sign of an inward and outraged scream. ‘I don’t believe it,’ he said thinly. ‘Just enlighten me as to which one of you two intellectuals is acquainted with George Eliot.’ Far from living up to Monkey’s image of a man intimidated by the police, Mr Casaubon had brightened as soon as Wexford spoke and now rejoined in thick hideous cockney, ‘I see him once. Strangeways it was, 1929. They done him for a big bullion job.’ ‘I fear,’ Wexford said distantly, ‘that we cannot be thinking of the same person. - Inspector Wexford reacts upon being introduced to blackmailer 'Mr. Casaubon' by small-time crook Monkey Matthews. Mr. Casaubon is otherwise the name of a character in [a:George Eliot|173|George Eliot|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1596202587p2/173.jpg]’s (penname of Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880)) novel [b:Middlemarch|19089|Middlemarch|George Eliot|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568307771l/19089._SY75_.jpg|1461747].
This continues my 2023 binge read / re-read of Ruth Rendell's (aka [a:Barbara Vine|47687|Barbara Vine|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1263385982p2/47687.jpg]) novels and it is the 6th in the Inspector Wexford series. Part of the joy with Wexford is the number of literary quotes and allusions which Rendell inserts into the text, but which are usually not explained. The above quote is an exception as it hints that the name "Mr. Casaubon" is associated with writer George Eliot. We can share and enjoy Wexford's surprise that the small time crooks he meets would have any knowledge of the Middlemarch novel.
Cover image for the original Hutchinson hardcover edition from 1971. Image sourced from Wikipedia.
No More Dying Then is otherwise a novel about a child abduction which hints back to an earlier disappearance and possible murder of another child in the same vicinity. Wexford's assistant Mike Burden is still mourning the loss of his wife and is distracted from his police duties. An extensive subplot involves him becoming involved with the divorced mother of the 2nd abducted child and the reader will become concerned that the woman may in fact be a suspect. The tension increases when the body of the first child is found even while the second is still missing. It is all wrapped up with a twist ending.
Another favourite quote from the book:
Night is a time for conjecture, dreams, mad conclusions; morning a time for action.
Trivia and Links
No More Dying Then was adapted for television as part of the Ruth Rendell / Inspector Wexford Mysteries TV series (1987-2000) as Season 3 Episodes 1 to 3 in 1989 with actor George Baker as Inspector Wexford. You can watch the entire 3 episodes on YouTube