A review by hpuphd
Murder Being Once Done by Ruth Rendell

5.0

Just brilliant. Some crime writers apply their energies to bringing to life the characters. Here Wexford is out of his element (in London visiting family to recuperate), as he tries to solve a case his nephew is working on. The human element is fully on display with all his ups and downs. Other crime writers are content to focus on the ingenuity of the crime and its detection. Rendell puts in amazing effort at both elements. Has she ever written a bad book? The last third of this novel unfolds so beautifully as we have come to care about Wexford’s need to succeed with the case and then see how elusive discovering what really happened seems to be. A wonderful novel!