The third book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford.
Anita Margolis has vanished. Dark and exquisite, Anita's character is as mysterious as her disappearance.
There was no body, no crime - nothing more concrete than an anonymous letter and the intriguing name of Smith. According to headquarters, it wasn't to be considered a murder enquiry at all.
With the letter providing them with only one questionable lead to follow, Wexford and his sidekick Inspector Burden are compelled to make enquiries. They soon discover Anita is wealthy, flighty, and thoroughly immoral. The straight-laced Burden has a very clear idea of what happened to her. But Wexford has his own suspicions...
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Ruth Rendell has quite simply transformed the genre of crime writing. She displays her peerless skill in blending the mundane, commonplace aspects of life with the potent murky impulses of desire and greed, obsession and fear - Sunday Times
A firm grasp of social concerns ensure that her novels are reflective of our own times, as well as hugely absorbing - The Times
The best mystery writer anywhere in the English-speaking world - Boston Globe
An unusual detective story... intelligent, well-written, with a surprising twist at the end - Times Literary Supplement
Rendell never fails to come up trumps, and her millions of admirers will eagerly consume this offering as they have all the others - The Irish Times
Psychologically acute and extremely disturbing, Ruth Rendell's work is outstanding. - The Times
It's not often you pick up a book where the plot is technically perfect, where the characters all come off the page perfectly formed and the writing is so good that it's impossible to spot an unnecessary word, but which still managed to be a damn good story. I was still reading at 2 o'clock this morning... - TheBookbag.co.uk
Ruth Rendell is crime writing at its very best. The author of over 50 novels, she has won many significant crime fiction awards. Her first novel, From Doon With Death, appeared in 1964, and since then her reputation and readership have grown steadily with each new book.
She has received major awards for her work; three Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America; the Crime Writers' Gold Dagger Award for 1976's best crime novel, A Demon in My View; the Arts Council National Book Award for Genre Fiction in 1981 for The Lake of Darkness; the Crime Writer's Gold Dagger Award for 1986's best crime book for Live Flesh; in 1987 the Crime Writer's Gold Dagger Award for A Fatal Inversion and in 1991 the same award for King Solomon's Carpet, both written under the pseudonym Barbara Vine; the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990; and in 1991 the Crime Writer's Cartier Diamond Award for outstanding contribution to the crime fiction genre.
Her books are translated into 21 languages. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.