I do enjoy a Ruth Rendell novel now and then and this one I found in my local charity shop for 50p so I couldn’t not buy it. The novel was published in 1992 and was the 15th novel to feature Chief Inspector Wexford. The Wexford novels do not have to be read in order as they are all stand-alone novels. Whilst Wexford is in charge of the investigations you are not sure in his home life who ‘wares the trousers’. I would say Reg Wexford wares them but his wife, Dora, tells him which pair.
The title of the book refers to an old navel punishment of a
sailor being tied to a gun barrel before receiving a number of lashes.
Brief plot:
Three members of a local well-to-do family have been
murdered and only the youngest, Daisy, has survived the massacre but can Daisy
remember enough of what happened or has the trauma blanked it from her memory….
Chief Inspector Reg Wexford is on the case but with more
suspects than most fanatical members of the gourmet society have had hot
dinners it isn’t going to be easy….
Can Reg Wexford protect Daisy and still solve the case…..
What I thought:
I have sometimes found Ruth Rendell novels a little hard
going and this novel was no exception but her plot lines and plot twists are
some of the best in the genre. They are not light holiday reads and I remember
my mum describing her books a ‘Agatha Christie books for masochists’ I think my
mum went a little far in that description but Rendell’s books do require more patience.
The novel does start with what seems to be one plot then it turns into something else. Her ability to keep main plots and subplots going without either falling apart is one of the best features in her writing and, I think, few authors do it better.
Her ever popular character of Chief Inspector Wexford is
someone who relies on what would be regarded as old fashioned police work using
questioning skills looking at evidence in a world before google and the ability
to find almost anything on the internet. Wexford is clearly someone who got to
where he is by hard work and success in his investigations rather than whether
he plays golf with the right person or went to the right school etc.
The crime scene is well described but I would say perhaps
not for those with a sensitive disposition as it is a bit of the gruesome side.
Whilst the description of the forensic work is perhaps a little light it is
more what Wexford notices and the way his mind pieces things together which
gets the results. The setting of what would be regarded as a Manor House and
its rather remote setting has been well done as has the description of those
who work in the house and keep the grounds has been well done and Rendell has
made them very believable characters. This is in part as all her characters
have their flaws. Wexford, for instance, is known to have a favourite daughter.
Then we have the parents who insist their son is ‘a good boy really’ despite
him being well known as a local trouble maker.
The locality of the Manor House in a wooded area far away
from what would have been tied cottages has also been set in such a way that it
has shown that anyone of the suspects could have done it as they all could have
got there and got in to the Manor house but at the same time no-one could have
as surely someone else would have seen them and yet nobody did.
As with all her novels Rendell does also throw in a few red
herrings which keeps the reader guessing throughout the novel and there are a
good number of plot twists and the unexpected turning up. When reading Rendell’s
novels I now keep a notebook to note the odd thing down to see if I can work
out who has done it. I can say that in this novel it still didn’t do any good
as I still got it wrong. There is always something that you as the reader
misses but Wexford does not. Then again he wouldn’t be much use if he did miss
vital evidence.
I read this novel over two weeks and it does have quite
short chapters so there are places you can put it down for the night. Whilst
this is not as good as some of her other Wexford novels (my favourite of the
ones I have read is ‘Road Rage’) it is still a good read. I probably would not
read it again as I do have a good memory for the ending of crime fiction and
can remember who did it.
Thanks for your thoughtful blog. I always considered this particular novel to be the last excellent Wexford novel. Every Wexford novel after this one has a social issue at its core, and while I liked and admired them, especially The Babes In The Wood, I never felt they reached the quality of Shake Hands Forever, A Guilty Thing Surprised, or A Sleeping Life. I read somewhere that a friend told RR that her novels were never bloody, or as you put it, gruesome. This novel was RR's response.
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