"A female vicar named Sarah Hussein is discovered strangled in her Kingsmarkham vicarage. The gossipy cleaning woman who discovers her body, Maxine, happens to also be in the employ of retired Chief Inspector Wexford and his wife. When detective inspector Mike Burden calls him, Wexford, intrigued by the unusual circumstances of the murder, leaps at the chance to tag along with the investigators. A single-mother to a teenage girl, Hussein was a woman...

Over the years there have been several unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town of Kingsmarkham, and Wexford (as a young policeman) quietly suspected that the increasingly prosperous Targo -- van driver, property developer, kennel owner, and animal lover -- was behind them. Now, half a lifetime later, Inspector Wexford spots Targo back in Kingsmarkham after a long absence.

Winner of multiple Edgar and Gold Dagger awards including the most prestigious Edgar of them all, the Grand Master, Ruth Rendell returns with a novel that pits Chief Inspector Wexford against a quite personal foe: the environmental terrorists who kidnap and threaten the lives of five hostages—including Wexford's own wife.
As Road Rage begins, Chief Inspector Wexford is walking through Framhurst Great Wood, just outside his beloved town of Kingsmarkham,...

In Britain, a pedophile's house is burned by an angry mob when a girl disappears, the man having been recently released from jail. But Inspector Wexford is not swayed by the obvious and traces the disappearance to the girl's home and her abusive father.

The stag party was terrific. The incident that followed was terrifying. . . .
“The best mystery writer anywere in the English-speaking world.”—The Boston Globe
Who could have suspected that the exciting stag party for the groom would be a prelude to the murder of his close friend Charlie Hatton? But it was—and Charlie's death sentence was only the first in a string of puzzling murders involving small-time...

When Scotland Yard Chief Howard Fortune returns from his vacation/work trip to China he finds mysterious deaths of people he met. Reg Wexford, included in the group, investigate after he returns to work.

Rhoda Comfrey's death seemed unremarkable; the real mystery was her life.
In A Sleeping Life, master mystery writer Ruth Rendell unveils an elaborate web of lies and deception painstakingly maintained by a troubled soul. A wallet found in Comfrey's handbag leads Inspector Wexford to Mr. Grenville West, a writer whose plots revel in the blood, thunder, and passion of dramas of old; whose current whereabouts are unclear; and whose curious...

Inspector Wexford searches for answers after an elderly woman is murdered in this “spellbinder” from a New York Times–bestselling author (Publishers Weekly).
When Chief Inspector Wexford enters the parking garage, the woman is already dead, slumped between two cars, concealed under a velvet shroud. The inspector doesn’t even notice her as he drives away. Only later, when he sees on the news that

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A local rock festival appears to be going off without a hitch, until the terribly disfigured body of a local girl turns up in a nearby quarry, and the prime suspect becomes charismatic rock star Zeno Vedast.

A young girl is murdered in a cemetery.  And Wexford's doctor has prescribed no alcohol, no rich food and, above all, no police work.  When a young girl's body is found in a London cemetery and the local police, under the command of Wexford's nephew, are baffled, Wexford decides to brave his doctor's wrath and the condescension of the London police by doing a little investigating of his own. A compelling story of mysterious identity...