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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Babes in the Wood'
After weeks of rain, Chief Inspector Wexford has just finished moving his books and furniture upstairs to protect them from the rising waters when the telephone rings. Two local teenagers and their babysitter have gone missing. Wexford isnt particularly worried, since these things usually sort themselves out. But as hours stretch into days, he begins to suspect he has a kidnapping on his hands. The stakes get even higher when a member of the missing trio turns up dead in the woods nearby.
In the course of his investigation, Wexford must deal with a neighbor whose alibi is questionable, a religious cult and its sylvan rituals, someone close to the childrens family who nurses a terrible secret, and the babysitters ex-husband, who reveals the womans hidden penchant for violence.
In The Babes in the Wood, Ruth Rendell draws the reader into a riveting story that alternates between Chief Inspector Wexfords domestic lifehis worries about the security of his home and his daughters odd new boyfriendand his determination to see through a kaleidoscope of lies and bring a murderer to justice. [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Best Man to Die'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Birchwood'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Blackwater Lightship'
In the opening pages of The Blackwater Lightship, a stranger drives up to Helen O'Doherty's Dublin house to tell her that her brother Declan is in the hospital and needs to see her. At his request, she joins him at the creepy seaside house of their grandmother--where, as children, they awaited news of their dying father. What's more, they're not the only guests. Paul and Larry, friends of Declan who have known about his HIV diagnosis far longer than his family, are the next to arrive. And then comes Helen's estranged mother Lily, whom she hasn't seen in years. Still angry over the emotional abandonment she suffered during her youth, Helen had refused even to invite Lily to her wedding. Now she must come to terms not only with the imminent death of her beloved brother but also with her mother and grandmother--all at once.
Colm Tóibín (The Story of the Night) delivers this unsentimental account of a troubled family in spare but suggestive language. He does allow his characters a few high-spirited remarks and the occasional outburst. Otherwise, though, he keeps his tone even, allowing for the perfect integration of a light, unforced symbolism. For Lily, broken hopes and dreams are bound up with the Blackwater Lightship, one of two lighthouses that once stood in the Irish Sea near Ballyconnigar. As a child, she believed that these would always be there:
Tuskar was a man and the Blackwater Lightship was a woman and they were both sending signals to each other and to other lighthouses, like mating calls. He was forceful and strong and she was weaker but more constant, and sometimes she began to shine her light before darkness had really fallen.For Helen, on the other hand, it was the house itself that prompted her deepest, happiest fantasies. But now Lily has sold the property and shattered Helen's dream that "it would be her refuge, and that her mother, despite everything, would be there for her and would take her in and shelter her and protect her. She had never entertained this thought before; now, she knew that it was irrational and groundless, but nonetheless ... she knew that it was real and it explained everything." What Declan has done by drawing them all together at Granny's house is to enact this potent, poignant fantasy. Whether it has the power to reconstruct his family is another matter, but in any case, The Blackwater Lightship remains a gripping narrative, deftly delivered by a master storyteller. --Regina Marler [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'Blood Lines : Long and Short Stories'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bloodlines'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Death Notes'
› Find signed collectible books: 'End in Tears'
At first there was no reason to link the killings. The first one, months earlier, seemed totally random: a lump of concrete pushed off an overpass onto a passing car. By contrast, the gruesome bludgeoning death of Amber Marshalson, returning home late from a night out clubbing with friends, was obviously calculated. The killer had been seen waiting for the girl in a nearby wood. But when Chief Inspector Wexford discovers that Amber had been the driver right behind the crushed carand that shed been driving a silver Honda, while the car in front of her was a gray Hondahe knows that someone wanted the teenager dead badly enough to kill twice to get the job done. And as it turns out, this murderers plans are only just getting underway. Can Wexford unravel the complex knots that connect these murders in time to save future victims? Or is he, as he begins to fear, losing his touch and fast becoming a relic of another time?
Long beloved by readers for her deft weaving of wonderfully meticulous characterization, dark humor, and trenchant social commentary into gripping and fast-paced plots, Ruth Rendell is in top form with End in Tears. Taking off from the first page with back-to-back murders and ending with one of Wexfords own officers in mortal danger, End in Tears touches on issues of class, race, parenthood, aging, and gender roles as it brings the traditional British whodunit into the twenty-first century.
Also available as a Random House AudioBook, Large Print edition, and eBook [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'From Doon With Death'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Guilty Thing Surprised'
› Find signed collectible books: 'Harm Done'
In Harm Done, Rendell has added a remarkable strand of acute social commentary to a book that still functions as an utterly compelling piece of detective fiction. In exploring the controversial subject of pedophilia, she takes the mainstay of her work--the problems of modern life--to a level of passion and commitment that gives the book a truly powerful underpinning.
Back in the familiar Sussex town of Kingsmarkham, Rendell's dogged sleuth Wexford is investigating the strange abductions of two young girls: Rachel, a bright middle-class student, and Lizzie, a mentally disabled 16-year-old living with her unsympathetic parents on a grim council estate. When both girls return home, apparently unharmed, Wexford is faced with a curious mystery: what really happened to them? As Wexford begins to uncover the disturbing truth, the dark psychological world that Rendell is so adroit at exploring suddenly comes into focus. And her gift for sharp but concise characterization remains untouchable, as in the case of a reluctant witness: '''We don't talk about that sort of thing.' She very nearly but not quite tossed her head." --Barry Forshaw, Amazon.co.uk [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Hook Peninsula, County Wexford: County Wexford'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Kissing the Gunner's Daughter'
Investigating the murder of a socialite family, Inspector Wexford is forced to face his own deepest feelings. Called "one of Rendell's darkest and most suble character studies" (SF Chronicle). [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Means of Evil and Other Stories'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Murder Being Once Done'
A young girl is murdered in a cemetery. And Wexford's doctor has prescribed no alcohol, no rich food and, above all, no police work. When a young girl's body is found in a London cemetery and the local police, under the command of Wexford's nephew, are baffled, Wexford decides to brave his doctor's wrath and the condescension of the London police by doing a little investigating of his own. A compelling story of mysterious identity and untimely death, Murder Being Once Done is Rendell at her most sublime.
With her Inspector Wexford novels, Ruth Rendell, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, has added layers of depth, realism and unease to the classic English mystery. For the canny, tireless, and unflappable policeman is an unblinking observer of human nature, whose study has taught him that under certain circumstances the most unlikely people are capable of the most appalling crimes. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A New Lease of Death'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'No More Dying Then'
What kind of a person would kidnap two children?
That is the question that haunts Wexford when a five-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl disappear from the village of Kingsmarkham. When a child's body turns up at an abandoned country home one search turns into a murder investigation and the other turns into a race against time. Filled with pathos and terror, passion, bitterness, and loss, No More Dying Then is Rendell at her most chillingly astute.
With her Inspector Wexford novels, Ruth Rendell, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, has added layers of depth, realism and unease to the classic English mystery. For the canny, tireless, and unflappable policeman is an unblinking observer of human nature, whose study has taught him that under certain circumstances the most unlikely people are capable of the most appalling crimes. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Put on by Cunning'
The great flautist's death seemed to Chief Inspector Wexford an open-and-shut case of misadventure, but with the return of his daughter after an absence of 19 years come a couple of niggling doubts. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Road Rage'
As Road Rage begins, Chief Inspector Wexford is walking in Framhurst Great Wood, just outside his beloved town of Kingsmarkham, for what he tells himself will be the last time. He can no longer bear to look at the beauty that will soon be despoiled by the construction of a new highway.
While Wexford despairs, his more sanguine wife, Dora, is active on a committee to save the threatened land. Others are more desperate to achieve their end, and their means include taking hostages -- including Dora -- and threatening murder.
Wexford and his dedicated team of officers work against time to learn the identity of the kidnappers, taking readers on a riveting chase following the intricate turns of the investigation. And, as in every Ruth Rendell novel, beyond the mortal drama lie political and moral questions that are not resolved with the closing of the case, and that apply far beyond the limits of Kingsmarkham ....
Road Rage is also available from Random House AudioBooks. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Shake Hands Forever'
The bed was neatly made, and the woman on top neatly strangled.
According to all accounts, Angela Hathall was deeply in love with her husband and far too paranoid to invite an unknown person into their home. So who managed to gain entry and strangle her without a struggle? That is the problem facing Inspector Wexford in Shake Hands Forever. Perhaps it was the mystery woman who left her fingerprints on the Hathall's bathtub? Perhaps it was Angela's husband who lied about a stolen library book? And why was the Hathall home, usually so unkempt, exqisitely clean the day of Angela's death? Then a neighbor--friendly, knowing, disarmingly beautiful--offers Wexford her assistance. And what begins as a rather tricky case turns into an obsession that threatens to destroy the Inspector's career--as well as his marriage.
Maddeningly addictive, smart and surprising, Shake Hands Forever showcases Ruth Rendell at the height of her storytelling powers. [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'Simisola'
Simisola, the 16th Inspector Wexford novel by Ruth Rendell, is at once a gripping mystery and an emotionally charged exploration of racism, sexual violence, and the urban ills that are infecting small, traditionally peaceful communities. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sins of the Fathers'
It was a brutal, vicious crime -- sixteen years old. A helpless old woman battered to death with an axe. Harry Painter hung for it, and Chief Inspector Wexford is certain they executed the right man. But Reverend Archery has doubts . . . because his son wants to marry the murderer's beautiful, brilliant daughter. He begins unravelling the past, only to discover that murder breeds murder -- and often conceals even deeper secrets . . . [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Sleeping Life'
The body found under the hedge was that of a middle-aged woman. The gray eyes were wide and staring, and in them Inspector Wexford thought he saw a sardonic gleam. But that must have been his imagination. The woman was a stranger. There was nothing to give him her address, name or occupation, let alone any clues that might lead to her killer. Unabridged. September '98 publication date. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Some Lie and Some Die'
A mutilated body found at a rock festival.
In spite of dire predictions, the rock festival in Kingsmarkham seemed to be going off without a hitch, until the hideously disfigured body is discovered in a nearby quarry. And soon Wexford is investigating the links between a local girl gone bad and a charismatic singer who inspires an unwholesome devotion in his followers. Some Lie and Some Die is a devilishly absorbing novel, in which Wexford's deductive powers come up against the aloof arrogance of pop stardom.
With her Inspector Wexford novels, Ruth Rendell, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, has added layers of depth, realism and unease to the classic English mystery. For the canny, tireless, and unflappable policeman is an unblinking observer of human nature, whose study has taught him that under certain circumstances the most unlikely people are capable of the most appalling crimes. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Speaker of Mandarin'
Chief Inspector Wexford is in China, visiting ancient tombs and palaces with a group of British tourists. After their return to England, one of his fellow tourists is found murdered. As he questions other members of the group, Wexford finds secrets of greed, treachery, theft, and adultery, leading the distressed inspector to ask not who is innocent, but who is least guilty . . . [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'An Unkindness of Ravens'
Ravens are not particularly predatory birds, but neither are they soft and submissive. The collective noun for them is an "unkindness". The raven is also a symbol used by a feminist group, whose attitude to the opposite sex is anything but soft and submissive. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Veiled One'
Who would garrote a middle-aged housewife and leave her body in the parking garage of a suburban shopping mall? Chief Inspector Wexford is no sooner on the case than a car bomb's explosion lands him in the hospital. It's now up to Mike Burden to step in and solve the case. He's got a suspect . . . but will he be able to make him talk? [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'The View from Courthouse Hill'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wolf to the Slaughter'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Year of Liberty: The Story of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Year of Liberty: The Great Irish Rebellion of 1798'
Still stinging from the loss of its American colonies, England in the 1790s suddenly found itself facing a danger next door as Irish revolutionaries, aided by the France of Napoleon Bonaparte, threatened rebellion. At the end of 1796, a French fleet attempted to land thousands of soldiers on the Irish coast with the intent of driving English rule from Ireland, but the plan was ruined by poor planning and worse weather. Within two years, an uprising by a revolutionary group, the United Irishmen, broke out, and Ireland was racked by a summer of widespread fighting, which climaxed when another French force actually landed and fought battles against British troops.
This abridged "bicentennial edition" of Thomas Pakenham's definitive work on the 1798 uprising, The Year of Liberty, tells the story quickly, making good use of contemporary illustrations, including maps and paintings of the fighting as well as reproductions of revolutionary proclamations. What the rebels and their French allies hoped would be a year that would see Ireland set free turned utterly tragic, as both sides committed atrocities and the Marquis Cornwallis, who had surrendered Yorktown to Washington during his service in America, took command of the British forces and tried to restore order. In the end, the French general and his troops surrendered, were treated with honor, and sailed back to France, while the Irish rebels who fought with them were hunted down and slaughtered, and the causes of Catholic emancipation and Irish independence suffered setbacks that would not be overcome for decades. --Robert McNamara [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Year of Liberty: The History of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798'
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