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Title details for End in Tears by Ruth Rendell - Wait list

End in Tears

A Wexford Novel

#20 in series

by Ruth Rendell
John Lee
Audiobook
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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
At first there was no reason to link the killings. The first one, months earlier, seemed totally random: a lump of concrete pushed off an overpass onto a passing car. By contrast, the gruesome bludgeoning death of Amber Marshalson, returning home late from a night out clubbing with friends, was obviously calculated. The killer had been seen waiting for the girl in a nearby wood. But when Chief Inspector Wexford discovers that Amber had been the driver right behind the crushed car—and that she’d been driving a silver Honda, while the car in front of her was a gray Honda—he knows that someone wanted the teenager dead badly enough to kill twice to get the job done. And as it turns out, this murderer’s plans are only just getting underway. Can Wexford unravel the complex knots that connect these murders in time to save future victims? Or is he, as he begins to fear, losing his touch and fast becoming a relic of another time?
Long beloved by readers for her deft weaving of wonderfully meticulous characterization, dark humor, and trenchant social commentary into gripping and fast-paced plots, Ruth Rendell is in top form with End in Tears. Taking off from the first page with back-to-back murders and ending with one of Wexford’s own officers in mortal danger, End in Tears touches on issues of class, race, parenthood, aging, and gender roles as it brings the traditional British whodunit into the twenty-first century.
Also available as a Random House AudioBook, Large Print edition, and eBook

  • Creators

  • Series

    Chief Inspector Wexford Mystery

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    July 18, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781415944318
      • File size: 317013 KB
      • Duration: 11:00:26

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      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. The mystery centers around the relationship between the murders of two teenaged girls, one a recent mother and the other recently pregnant. Lee sounds truly interested in the story, and in some indefinable way that compels the listener's attention, too. G.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 29, 2006
      Bestseller Rendell's riveting new novel in her Chief Inspector Wexford series (The Babes in the Wood
      , etc.) links two disparate worlds—a child-surrogacy ring and the construction trade. A teenage mother, Amber Marshalson, is found dead in the grass outside her home in Kingsmarkham, her skull crushed by a piece of brick. A short time later, Amber's pregnant friend, Megan Bartlow, turns up murdered in a seedy, about-to-be-rehabbed Victorian row house. Suspicions center on a tall man wearing a hooded fleece jacket. Against this 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. While Rendell fans may find this not quite up to the level of her most recent non-Wexford, Thirteen Steps Down
      (2005), they should be well satisfied.

    • Library Journal

      April 1, 2007
      Rendell continues her Chief Inspector Wexford mystery series with her latest work. Spoiled teenage mother Amber Marshalson is found dead in the woods after a night out, and Wexford discovers there had been an attempt on Amber's life months earlier. How Amber was killed is evident, but the complicated why and by whom are what Wexford and his partners seek to uncover. Subplots abound and touch upon a variety of topics, including surrogacy, teenage pregnancy, and other assorted and dramatic family and societal issues. The listener needs solid concentration to keep abreast of everything that happens here, particularly as reader John Lee's characterizations tend to be similar. However, Rendell provides numerous interesting and nuanced characters throughout.End in Tears is well done and consistently compelling as the listener learns more about the chief inspector. Recommended for mystery/suspense/thriller collections.Nicole A. Cooke, Montclair State Univ. Lib., NJ

      Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Two murders, with two unrelated victims. Or are they? It falls to Chief Inspector Wexford to find the link between the death of a woman killed by a chunk of concrete dropped off an overpass and the vicious bludgeoning of teenager Amber Marshalson. Concluding that the first death was the result of a failed attempt on Amber's life only raises more questions--and adds to the list of suspects. Rendell's serpentine plot and quirky characters are well served by Daniel Gerroll's narration. His wry rendering of Wexford is a highlight, and he conveys the dispositions of all of the characters without apparent effort. He's also adept at emphasizing the story's grace notes of dark humor. C.E.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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