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saareman 's review for:
A New Lease Of Death
by Ruth Rendell
Very Unorthodox 2nd Outing
Review of the Arrow Books paperback edition (1981) of the original Hutchinson hardcover (1967)
Ruth Rendell surprised me with A New Lease of Death, which is listed as No. 2 in her Inspector Wexford (1964-2013) series. What is shocking about this book, with a supposed series character, is that Inspector Wexford DOES ABSOLUTELY NO DETECTING OR INVESTIGATING IN IT!
Charles, the son of the Reverend Henry Archery, intends to marry Tess, whose father Painter was condemned for the brutal murder of an elderly widow 16 years ago. The then supposed open and shut case was the first murder ever investigated and solved by Wexford. The Reverend Archery now approaches him to investigate the possible innocence of the executed man, in order to remove the stigma of a cursed bloodline from his possible future descendants. Wexford is confident about the early conviction, but admits that he can't prevent Archery from talking to the surviving witnesses.
Archery proceeds with various lines of enquiry and proposes several alternative solutions to the crime. Wexford is still adamant that the correct murderer was caught and rightly convicted. There are several sub-plots which occur during the course of Archery's amateur efforts which do not appear at first to be related at all to the main plot. Everything becomes clear in the end though with a cleverly devised twist ending which satisfies everyone. Saying anything more would be a major spoiler.
I read A New Lease of Death 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 binge re-reads. Rendell is definitely one of the masters of the Silver Age of Crime though and I will certainly be re-reading several of her books.
Trivia and Links
A New Lease of Death was adapted for television in the long running series of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987-2000), sometimes called 'The Inspector Wexford Mysteries'. It ran as Episodes 1 to 3 of Series 5 in 1991. 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 (1981) of the original Hutchinson hardcover (1967)
Ruth Rendell surprised me with A New Lease of Death, which is listed as No. 2 in her Inspector Wexford (1964-2013) series. What is shocking about this book, with a supposed series character, is that Inspector Wexford DOES ABSOLUTELY NO DETECTING OR INVESTIGATING IN IT!
Charles, the son of the Reverend Henry Archery, intends to marry Tess, whose father Painter was condemned for the brutal murder of an elderly widow 16 years ago. The then supposed open and shut case was the first murder ever investigated and solved by Wexford. The Reverend Archery now approaches him to investigate the possible innocence of the executed man, in order to remove the stigma of a cursed bloodline from his possible future descendants. Wexford is confident about the early conviction, but admits that he can't prevent Archery from talking to the surviving witnesses.
Archery proceeds with various lines of enquiry and proposes several alternative solutions to the crime. Wexford is still adamant that the correct murderer was caught and rightly convicted. There are several sub-plots which occur during the course of Archery's amateur efforts which do not appear at first to be related at all to the main plot. Everything becomes clear in the end though with a cleverly devised twist ending which satisfies everyone. Saying anything more would be a major spoiler.
I read A New Lease of Death 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 binge re-reads. Rendell is definitely one of the masters of the Silver Age of Crime though and I will certainly be re-reading several of her books.
Trivia and Links
A New Lease of Death was adapted for television in the long running series of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987-2000), sometimes called 'The Inspector Wexford Mysteries'. It ran as Episodes 1 to 3 of Series 5 in 1991. The entire 3 Episodes can be viewed on YouTube here. The TV series stars actor George Baker as Inspector Wexford.