A Sleeping Life

Rating:
Summary: Terrific Twist - One of the best Inspector Wexfords
Review: This is one of Inspector Wexford's most baffling and gripping cases. Highly recommended for its orginality and plot twists. Very worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: The plot's the thing
Review: When plain, unattractive Rhoda Comfrey is found stabbed to death in a field outside Kingsmarkham, it's business as usual for Chief Inspector Wexford and his hilariously prudish sidekick, Burden. This convoluted case is even more frustrating than usual, however; virtually no one, aside from an indifferent relative, seems to remember the victim, and Wexford finds himself going around in circles in his desperate search for even the slightest of leads. His only clue is a man named Grenville West, who proves as elusive and enigmatic as Rhoda Comfrey herself.

The most intriguing mystery here, aside from whodunit, is the truth about Rhoda Comfrey's double life. Wexford arrives at his solution through the same combination of wit, intuition, and instinct (as opposed to straightforward, by-the-book detection) he displays in all his cases. True to form, Ruth Rendell delivers a positively stunning twist at the end, and of course, it caught me totally off guard. Unfortunately, the surprise revelation has practically zero emotional resonance. It's easy to admire Rendell's typically first-rate plotting, but her manipulations here lack the psychological dimension of her best work. And say what you will, but I didn't buy the killer's motive for a minute. A corpse should have a reason for being a corpse; even Agatha Christie understood that.

I almost always love Rendell's spare, understated prose, but for some reason, this book is neither as sharply written nor as witty as it should be. There's surprisingly little of the narrative tension and momentum so evident in SHAKE HANDS FOREVER (still, for my money, the best Inspector Wexford mystery). Instead, A SLEEPING LIFE has the same slack pace and implausible character motivation so evident in SOME LIE AND SOME DIE (still, for my money, the worst Inspector Wexford mystery).

Not a bad book--Rendell is practically incapable of that--but far from being the great one it should have been.

Rating:
Summary: The plot's the thing
Review: When plain, unattractive Rhoda Comfrey is found stabbed to death in a field outside Kingsmarkham, it's business as usual for Chief Inspector Wexford and his hilariously prudish sidekick, Burden. This convoluted case is even more frustrating than usual, however; virtually no one, aside from an indifferent relative, seems to remember the victim, and Wexford finds himself going around in circles in his desperate search for even the slightest of leads. His only clue is a man named Grenville West, who proves as elusive and enigmatic as Rhoda Comfrey herself.

The most intriguing mystery here, aside from whodunit, is the truth about Rhoda Comfrey's double life. Wexford arrives at his solution through the same combination of wit, intuition, and instinct (as opposed to straightforward, by-the-book detection) he displays in all his cases. True to form, Ruth Rendell delivers a positively stunning twist at the end, and of course, it caught me totally off guard. Unfortunately, the surprise revelation has practically zero emotional resonance. It's easy to admire Rendell's typically first-rate plotting, but her manipulations here lack the psychological dimension of her best work. And say what you will, but I didn't buy the killer's motive for a minute. A corpse should have a reason for being a corpse; even Agatha Christie understood that.

I almost always love Rendell's spare, understated prose, but for some reason, this book is neither as sharply written nor as witty as it should be. There's surprisingly little of the narrative tension and momentum so evident in SHAKE HANDS FOREVER (still, for my money, the best Inspector Wexford mystery). Instead, A SLEEPING LIFE has the same slack pace and implausible character motivation so evident in SOME LIE AND SOME DIE (still, for my money, the worst Inspector Wexford mystery).

Not a bad book--Rendell is practically incapable of that--but far from being the great one it should have been.