Ruth Rendell Inspector Wexford Series Books In Order

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Inspector Wexford Books In Order

The Inspector Wexford series is a police procedural mystery series. Written by Ruth Rendell, the books are set in Kingsmarkham, a fictional town in Sussex.

Wexford is portrayed as an intelligent, sensitive man with a wife and two daughters. Rendell said she modeled the character after herself in many ways the way including how he thinks and his tastes in reading and music. Her writing style is atmospheric and visual, and she delves into her characters’ psychology in interesting ways.

Readers of the series enjoy the devious plot twists and suspense, noting that it is very difficult to stop turning the pages of her books. Ruth herself believed this was her strongest talent, saying, “Suspense is my thing. I think I am able to make people want to keep turning pages. They want to know what happens. So I can do that.”

Fans strongly recommend reading the Inspector Wexford series in order because Wexford, his family, and his work colleagues all grow and go through life changes. They note that reading in sequence makes the series much more enjoyable.

It should be noted that A New Lease of Death (Book 2) goes by The Sins of the Fathers in America and Put on by Cunning (Book 11) goes by Death Notes in America. Also, The Vault (Book 23) is the sequel to A Sight For Sore Eyes (1998), which is one of Ruth Rendell’s standalone novels, so reading this novel first will make the story in The Vault make more sense.

1. From Doon with Death

Who would kill someone with nothing to hide? Inspector Wexford, the formidable chief of police, feels baffled — until he discovers Margaret’s dark secret: a trove of rare books

2. A New Lease of Death

It’s impossible to forget the violent bludgeoning to death of an elderly lady in her home. Even more so when it’s your first murder case.

3. Wolf to the Slaughter

It was better than a hotel, this anonymous room on a secluded side street of a small country town.

4. The Best Man to Die

The stag party was terrific. The incident that followed was terrifying…

5. A Guilty Thing Surprised

The discovery of Elizabeth Nightingale’s broken body in the woods near her home could not have come as a bigger shock.

6. No More Dying Then

On a stormy February afternoon, little Stella Rivers disappears – never to be seen again. There are no clues, no demands and no traces. And there is nowhere for Wexford and his team to look.

7. Murder Being Once Done

It seems fitting that the final resting place of a girl’s body should be in a graveyard. But this is no peaceful burial. This is a brutal murder scene.

8. Some Lie and Some Die

When the body of a brutally beaten girl is found in a quarry during a hedonistic hippy festival near Kingsmarkham, Wexford is first on the scene.

9. Shake Hands Forever

Angela Hathall is found strangled in her bed but, shockingly, the murder of this meek and solitary woman sparks little emotion from her husband. Called in to investigate, Wexford’s curiosity only deepens when he discovers

10. A Sleeping Life

Death is always solitary. For some, so is life…

11. Put on by Cunning

Sir Manuel Camargue, yesterday one of the most celebrated musicians of his time, today floats face down in the lake near his sprawling English country house.

12. The Speaker Of Mandarin

Wherever Reggie Wexford goes, death and intrigue are close on his heels. Having just returned from a once-in-a-lifetime holiday in China, Wexford finds himself haunted by memories of the old woman

13. An Unkindness Of Ravens

The raven: not a particularly predatory bird, but far from soft and submissive, adopted as the symbol of a militant feminist group…

14. The Veiled One

Concealed by a shroud of dirty brown velvet, looking like a heap of rags, the woman’s dead body lay between a silver Escort and a dark-blue Lancia.

15. Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter

A bank job goes wrong and a Kingsmarkham detective sergeant is killed. Months later, the Flory family are slaughtered at home by an unknown assassin.

16. Simisola

In the quiet Sussex country town of Kingsmarkham, the daughter of Nigerian physician Raymond Akande is missing. “It’s probably nothing,” says Dr. Akande to his friend and client Chief Inspector Wexford, whose help he enlists.

17. Road Rage

A by-pass is planned in Kingsmarkham – that will destroy its peace and the natural habitat forever. Dora Wexford joins the protest movement, but Wexford must be more circumspect.

18. Harm Done

The search for the body commenced. Then the victim walked into town.

19. The Babes in the Wood

With floods threatening both the town of Kingsmarkham and his own home and no end to the rain in sight, Chief Inspector Wexford already has his hands full when he learns that two local teenagers have gone missing

20. End in Tears

A lump of concrete dropped deliberately from a little stone bridge over a relatively unfrequented road kills the wrong person. The driver behind is spared. But only for a while…

21. Not in the Flesh

Searching for truffles in a wood, a man and his dog unearth something less savoury–a human hand. The body, as Chief Inspector Wexford is informed later, has lain buried for ten years or so, wrapped in a purple cotton shroud.

22. The Monster in the Box

Rendell, “the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world” (Time), takes Inspector Wexford back to his first murder case

23. The Vault

In the stunning climax to Rendell’s classic 1998 novel A Sight for Sore Eyes, three bodies—two dead, one living—are entombed in an underground chamber beneath a picturesque London house.

24. No Man’s Nightingale

A female vicar named Sarah Hussein is discovered strangled in her Kingsmarkham vicarage. A single mother to a teenage girl, Hussein was working in a male-dominated profession.