End in Tears: A Wexford Novel

“Against [a] sinister backdrop stands Wexford, who’s in lion-in-winter mode. He’s irked and perplexed by modern life, by the casual way young girls conceive babies, by the sprawl devouring the once-lush Sussex countryside, even by his own fractious family. But he never loses the anger and dedication that propel him to solve crimes and understand evil…Rendell fans…should be well satisfied.” —Publishers Weekly

“Plot twists abound for those into neck-snapping plots.” —Bookmarks magazine

“A rich cast of characters makes up for the mechanical plot in Rendell’s twentieth Chief Inspector Wexford mystery, starring the shrewd, grandfatherly detective and his handsome, considerably younger sidekick, Burden…Prolific three-time Edgar winner Rendell proves a master at rendering the joys and sorrows of human relationships.” —Booklist

“Wexford emerges from an intricate web of red herrings to identify a sadly amateurish scam and a surprising killer. Average for Rendell’s distinguished list of whodunits, which makes it just a whisker below state of the art.” —Kirkus Reviews

“John Lee’s great achievement in reading Ruth Rendell’s twentieth novel about Chief Inspector Wexford is his ability to draw the reader into the story. Lee provides a fully voiced performance of the book, differentiating the characters effectively; furthermore, his use of silence, of pace, of even his ever precise diction manages always to make the story intriguing. Lee’s accomplishment is all the more worthwhile since the novel, while as insightful about human nature as Rendell’s other Wexford books, is a bit straightforward and unsurprising in its plotting…Lee sounds truly interested in the story, and in some indefinable way that compels the listener’s attention, too. Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award.” —AudioFile