Rating: 
Summary: Not Rendell's best work.
Review: I love Inspector Wexford. He is down-to-earth and he has a dry sense of humor. Wexford is a person who knows that he is flawed, and he tries to improve himself, especially in his relationship to his daughters. I like how Rendell describes the Wexford family dynamics. Rendell always writes well, but in this novel, she resorts to cliches about domestic violence. We have read this type of story so many times, and it doesn't tell us anything new about domestic abuse. The story flags badly in the middle, and it doesn't pick up any steam until the very end. Rendell breaks no new ground here, and this book is tepid compared to "Simisola," one of her better works. However, her dialogue is always well-written and she is worth reading, even when her work is not excellent. She needs to work on plot development and make her mysteries more compelling. Her last work, "A Sight for Sore Eyes," was depressing but excellently written.
Rating: 
Summary: No Harm Done
Review: I really liked this book. Other reviewers have written that they thought there were too many unconnected stories. I think it just shows you what a mix of people there are in this small town in England. Crime touched all neigborhoods it seems. The explanation for two of the disappearing girls was touching. What would you do in Vicky's situation? I even liked the part about the lost raincoat. The author has a nice, typically English sense of humor.
Rating:
Summary: No Harm Done
Review: I really liked this book. Other reviewers have written that they thought there were too many unconnected stories. I think it just shows you what a mix of people there are in this small town in England. Crime touched all neigborhoods it seems. The explanation for two of the disappearing girls was touching. What would you do in Vicky's situation? I even liked the part about the lost raincoat. The author has a nice, typically English sense of humor.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not her best
Review: I think Ruth Rendell is on the best writers in the world! That said, her latest is great to read but it lacks the usual punch that her novels usually have. There is a lot going on in this one and you keep thinking that the different sub-plots will weave together with the others in the end but they don't. I thought that the book should have been shorter and there is a lot of detail, such as the pursuit of a suspect that does not pan out, that could have been left out. The villan, in this case a wife beater, is a deliciously despised character and the reader will get a smug satisfaction when he gets his punishment.
Rating:
Summary: The Day when Mystery died
Review: I used to be thrilled every time when I got a new Ruth Rendell's book and I was never disappointed. Not this time. Ruth Rendell has gone PC. Harm done is a nice book and it serves a good cause, but it is not a mystery. The harm has been done.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I've read one other Rendell book and enjoyed it. However, this one left me disappointed. As several other reviewers noted, the three plot lines about the abductions of two young girls, the pedophile and the wife beater never come together. I also felt both the social commentary and characters were shallow. The book would have been better if one or more of the plot lines were dropped and the remaining plot lines followed in greater depth.
Rating:
Summary: I liked it
Review: I've seen so many reader reviews who say they're bored with Wexford. I find him very refreshing and down-to-earth compared with the psychos he's dealing with. He's no saint; he's just a regular guy. Many of Rendell's characters are SO creepy that I need a little normality in there.
This book, politically correct or not, was scarier than any of her others, because it's real and happens every day, everywhere. And it's practically invisible. Rendell gives this "P.C." novel her own Rendellesque twists, which makes it well worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: The biggest disappointment yet
Review: If there is ever a place where the political correctness does not belong, it's mystery. Ruth Rendell has sold out to the PC crowd - the book is bland and preachy. I think the damage is irreversible, at least for me. Mystery will never be the same.
Rating:
Summary: Skillful and complex
Review: In her 18th novel featuring Inspector Wexford Rendell weaves together multiple plots involving two missing teen-age girls, a convicted pedophile returning to his residence in Kingsmarkham and the mob violence his return touches off, and a little girl missing from an upper middle class home. Not all of these plots work well together, which is why I have given it only 4 stars. However, the central plot about the missing little girl is what captured me. The story that Ruth Rendell tells of the effects of domestic violence on an entire family is chilling and heartbreaking. Not only does the wife and mother suffer extreme mental and physical abuse but the two children remaining in the home are clearly adversely affected. The effects of domestic violence will be felt in this family long after their escape from abuse. Rendell builds an atmosphere of suspense and dread that can only be a small reflection of the terror of living in such a situation, but the empathetic reader will be much affected. There can be no real happy ending to this story, at least not immediately. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys well drawn and believable characters, especially that of Inspector Wexford who is faced with a real moral dilemma.
Rating:
Summary: There's no 'Harm Done' in Rendell's latest!
Review: In her latest Inspector Wexford mystery, Ruth Rendell adds another notch to her string of mystery "wins"! While it may (or may not) be her best Wexford installment, her latest "Harm Done" certainly is one of my favorites. The author--ever so aware of current issues--does not shy away from yet another socially significant and controversial issue. In fact, she tackles more than one in this thriller. For starters, a pedophile is released from prison to live in one of the council houses in Kingsmarkham. Naturally, the community is literally up in arms. And, more to the point, this novel addresses spouse and child abuse in its various forms, and the readers cannot escape this thematic approach to another of our societal aberrations. Along the way, a policeman is killed by a mob protesting the pedophile's presence, and, eventually enough, there is a murder for Wexford to solve. The inspector is not without his trusty assistant Mike Burden, and plod they do to solve the case, as much by intuition as by logic and cold facts. Wexford has made a reputation for being able to "sense" the solution in the previous Rendell books. Kingsmarkham, too, has become a regular community in literary geography. The book begins with the disappearance of a teen aged girl, who, miraculously re-appears three days later; in one week, another teenager disappears, and then re-appears. The third person to go missing, next, however, is a three-year old child and the community becomes aflame with violence, as they lay the crime to the pedophile. Mob action follows and in their "reactions," the policeman is killed by a firebomb. Rendell's penchant for social issues makes her works worth reading anyway; if nothing else they raise a sense of social consciousness and awareness. In "Harm Done," she takes us from one set of family suffering from abuse to another, but not in the sense that it's overkill (pun intended). There is a feeling of disquietude, even depression, as she lays bare the abuse. This is not a book that will fill the reader with gaiety and humor; nor should it be. She is serious about her subject, and it's a subject that her readers, themselves, should be serious about. She also makes a stab irresponsibility of the tabloid press! Thus, the novel progresses and subsequently ends. And another chapter in the Wexford family has been unveiled. The inspector is a deeply fair man, one who firmly and fully believes in justice and it is his determination to uphold justice that makes us appreciate him so. Rendell, who also writes under the name of Barbara Vine, has been labeled the "Queen of Crime," as well as having been awarded a number of prizes for her novels. Her works are thought-provoking and far from simple. One cannot read her without being affected in some positive way. It is a pity that the BBC's "Ruth Rendell Mysteries" do not play in America, as most of her Wexford mysteries have been filmed--and fortunately remain true to her books. Her contribution to the genre is far-reaching. "Harm Done" is not to be missed. (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)
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