No Man's Nightingale: An Inspector Wexford Novel Author: Visit Amazon's Ruth Rendell Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1476744483 | Format: EPUB
No Man's Nightingale: An Inspector Wexford Novel Description
From Publishers Weekly
In Rendell's absorbing 24th Inspector Wexford novel (after 2011's The Vault), the Kingsmarkham, England, sleuth tries to find out who strangled the Rev. Sarah Hussain in the vicarage of St. Peter's Church, and why. The fact that Hussain was biracial and a single mother had galvanized bigots near and far, who resented her very existence as well as her modernizing the liturgy. When Wexford's grandson, Robin, begins dating Sarah's daughter, Clarissa, Robin gets entangled in identifying Clarissa's sperm-donor father—further upping the ante for Wexford. Is a white power group responsible for killing Sarah, or had a personal relationship curdled into fury? Suspects abound: the shiftless depressive Jeremy Legg; the Anglican traditionalist Dennis Cuthbert; and Gerald Watson, a stuffy old flame of the murdered woman. Wexford's strengths as a man and as a detective are his calmness and resilience. A serene atheist, he looks to the conscience of humanity and Britain's flawed but well-intended laws to glean whatever justice can exist today. Agent: Peter Matson, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Nov.)
From Booklist
Firmly established in his retirement, former Chief Inspector Wexford is so thoroughly enjoying reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire that passages from it stud this narrative. Still, he leaps at the invitation, from his successor and former partner, Michael Burden, to visit the vicarage where the Reverend Sarah Hussein was strangled to death. Treading carefully in joining the murder investigation, the intuitive Wexford is most interested in the past of the late vicar, whose daughter, Clarissa, was born years after her mother was widowed. That Clarissa was to be told the circumstances of her birth when she turned 18, just a few months hence, adds to the intrigue. Wexford’s talkative cleaning woman, Maxine Sams, and her family also figure in the case, which is pursued rather languidly to its conclusion. In her twenty-fourth Wexford mystery, Rendell continues to raise social issues—sexism, racism, the modernization of the Church of England—but the series, like its protagonist, may be slowing down a bit with age. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Although this isn’t among the best in the long-running and much-adored Inspector Wexford series, it remains must reading for Rendell’s many well-earned fans. --Michele Leber
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- Series: Inspector Wexford
- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Scribner; First Ed 1st Printing edition (November 5, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1476744483
- ISBN-13: 978-1476744483
- Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford may be retired, however he's just as smart and intuitive as ever. Well, perhaps he is a tad more crotchety, especially when his reading of his beloved Decline and Fall Of the Roman Empire is interrupted, but for this reader that makes him all the more endearing. While he's reasonably content in retirement he does miss investigating crimes so when Detective Superintendent Burden asks his old boss to join in the chase Wexford doesn't hesitate.
As it turns out this is an especially intriguing case - the Rev. Sarah Hussain, recently appointed vicar of St. Peter's Church has been strangled. To say that her appointment was greeted with enthusiasm would be a gross understatement. She is not only female but biracial and a single mother. Seems that bigotry and racism are alive and well in Kingsmarkham. But would that be enough to commit brutal murder?
There is no shortage of suspects from Dennis Cuthbert, a church member who not only objected to Sarah but to her modernization of the liturgy, Gerald Watson, an old flame of Sarah's who had taken to what some might stalking her and more. In addition to the coterie of suspects subplots abound including the jam ne'er-do-well Jeremy Legg has gotten himself into by the return of his ex-wife when Jeremy is illegally renting her flat. As it happens his tenants are Jason Sams and family. Jason is the son of Wexford's non-stop gossipy cleaning lady. Then, who is the father of Sarah's daughter, Clarissa?
Burden arrests gardener Duncan Crisp for the murder. Wexford doesn't believe the man is guilty which causes a rift between the two investigators. Days aren't at all sunny in Kingsmarkham and environs, which isn't due to the weather.
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