A New Lease Of Death

One of the best novelists writing today – P.D. James
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 *
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 *
Ruth Rendell’s mesmerising capacity to shock, chill and disturb is unmatched * The Times *
A firm grasp of social concerns ensure that her novels are reflective of our own times, as well as hugely absorbing – Louise Welsh * The Times *
This is Rendell on cracking form, with the entire accoutrements one expects from her * The Good Book Guide *
[Wexford] has become an old friend who gets better with age * The Herald *
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 *
Psychologically acute and extremely disturbing, Ruth Rendell’s work is outstanding * The Times *

Ruth Rendell was an exceptional crime writer, and will be remembered as a legend in her own lifetime. Her groundbreaking debut novel, From Doon With Death, was first published in 1964 and introduced the reader to her enduring and popular detective, Inspector Reginald Wexford, who went on to feature in twenty-four of her subsequent novels.

With worldwide sales of approximately 20 million copies, Rendell was a regular Sunday Times bestseller. Her sixty bestselling novels include police procedurals, some of which have been successfully adapted for TV, stand-alone psychological mysteries, and a third strand of crime novels under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Very much abreast of her times, the Wexford books in particular often engaged with social or political issues close to her heart.

Rendell won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for 1976’s best crime novel with A Demon in My View, a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986, and the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990. In 2013 she was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.

Ruth Rendell died in May 2015. Her final novel, Dark Corners, was published in October 2015.

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