One of the best-written detective series in the genre's history is ending. With "The Monster in the Box," Ruth Rendell says farewell to Reginald Wexford, her popular chief inspector of Kingsmarkham, a small Sussex town south of London. The author talking to the Daily Telegraph said : "I don't want to do any more Wexfords. I have other interests now."
Rendell turned 79 this year. Her tone in the 22nd Wexford novel is elegiac, as she looks back over his career and, implicitly, her own. Author and character debuted in 1964 in "From Doon With Death." Ever since, she has been misleading readers and critiquing social change in England. She writes sly, literate prose and spins intricate plots; several Wexfords stand among the finest detective stories ever written, especially "A Sleeping Life," "Simisola" and "Harm Done." Rendell has also published t
wo dozen non-series crime novels and more than a dozen others under the name Barbara Vine. Her list of honors is longer than most authors' bibliographies.
Whatever Rendell does with her writing in the future, one thing is certain - it'll be something to look forward to.
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