Ruth Rendell

Searching for truffles in a wood, a man and his dog unearth something less savory. The body, as Chief Inspector Wexford is informed later, has lain buried for ten years or so, and the post-mortem can not reveal the precise cause of death. Wexford kno ws it will be a difficult job to identify the corpse. Synopsis: Searching for truffles in a wood, a man and his dog unearth something less savory. The body, as Chief Inspector Wexford is informed later, has lain buried for ten years or so, and the p ost-mortem can not reveal the precise cause of death. Wexford knows it will be a difficult job to identify the corpse. Although it covers a relatively short period of time, the police computer stores a long list of missing persons. People disappear a t an alarming rate - hundreds each day. When another body is found nearby, the detection skills of Wexford, Burden and the other investigating officers of the Kingsmarkham Police Force are tested to the utmost to discover whether the deaths are conne cted and to track down whoever is responsible.'Compulsively readable' - "The Scotsman". 'Rendell never fails to come up trumps' - "Irish Times". 'Wexford is as solid and reliable as ever' - "Birmingham Post". 'As ever, Rendell writes both literately and perceptively about her characters and the world they live in' - "Spectator".Upozornenie: Vzhľadom na častejšie obmeny vydaní tejto knihy v zahraničí, kus, ktorý vám zašleme, nemusí mať rovnakú obálku ako je zobrazená tu. Zobrazená obálka môže byť iba ilustračná. Obsah knihy aj cena budú však identické, bez ohľadu na obálku.

The Portobello area of West London has a rich personality - vibrant, brilliant in color, noisy, with graffiti that approach art, bizarre and splendid. An indefinable edge to it adds a spice of danger. There is nothing safe about Portobello...Eugene Wren inherited an art gallery from his father near an arcade that now sells cashmere, handmade soaps and children's clothes. But he decided to move to a more upmarket site in Kensington Church Street. Eugene was fifty, with prematurely white hair. He was, perhaps, too secretive for his own good. He also had an addictive personality. But he had cut back radically on his alcohol consumption and had given up cigarettes. Which was just as well, considering he was going out with a doctor. For all his good intentions, though, there was something he didn't want her to know about...On a shopping trip one day, Eugene, quite by chance, came across an envelope containing money. He picked it up. For some reason, rather than report the matter to the police, he wrote a note and stuck it up on lamppost near his house: 'Found in Chepstow Villas, a sum of money between eighty and a hundred and sixty pounds. Anyone who has lost such a sum should apply to the phone number below'. This note would link the lives of a number of very different people - each with their obsessions, problems and dreams and despairs. And through it all the hectic life of Portobello would bustle on.

Philip Wardman, an ordinary young man, sports one eccentricity: a neurotic fear of violence and death. Like Ferdinand, he likes to smell the flowers, particularly those in his mother's garden, where stands a statue of the goddess Flora, who over time has come to represent all the female virtues.Imagine Philip's consternation when, at his sister's wedding, he encounters a living incarnation of the marble Flora: Senta Pelham, an actress happily contemptuous of conventional morality. She comes to him that night.But Senta has a dark side. Where death frightens Philip, it fascinates her. She proposes a wicked test: to prove his love he needs to kill."Vintage Rendell. Shrewd psychological insight, irresistible narrative force...a true member of that small family of great living authors." --Scott Turow

The bed was neatly made, and the woman on top neatly strangled.According to all accounts, Angela Hathall was deeply in love with her husband and far too paranoid to invite an unknown person into their home. So who managed to gain entry and strangle her without a struggle? That is the problem facing Inspector Wexford in Shake Hands Forever. Perhaps it was the mystery woman who left her fingerprints on the Hathall's bathtub? Perhaps it was Angela's husband who lied about a stolen library book? And why was the Hathall home, usually so unkempt, exqisitely clean the day of Angela's death? Then a neighbor--friendly, knowing, disarmingly beautiful--offers Wexford her assistance. And what begins as a rather tricky case turns into an obsession that threatens to destroy the Inspector's career--as well as his marriage. Maddeningly addictive, smart and surprising, Shake Hands Forever showcases Ruth Rendell at the height of her storytelling powers.

Mix, un garçon un peu paumé, pas vraiment méchant, est superstitieux - il redoute le chiffre 13. Il habite Notting Hill, sous les combles d'une maison délabrée, parmi des cadavres d'insectes. Il a deux obsessions : Jon Christie, un tueur en série mythique qui a rendu célbre le 10, Rillington Place, et une jeune femme noire, un superbe mannequin, qu'il harcle. Sa logeuse, Gwendolen Chawcer, vit en recluse, s'enfermant de plus en plus dans la lecture de Charles Darwin. Mais, un jour, Mix succombe au maléfice du chiffre 13, et la violence, longtemps contenue, explose au dernier étage...

Kerstin Kvist, une jeune infirmire suédoise, vient d'tre engagée dans une bien étrange demeure. La veuve, Mme Cosway, tyrannise ses trois filles célibataires qui vivent avec elle. Quant la quatrime, elle ne dissimule pas son mépris lorsqu'elle leur rend parfois visite. Plus déconcertante encore est l'attitude de Mme Cosway l'égard de son fils John, individu triste et introverti, que l'on gave de médicaments. Il y a de la folie dans la famille ", laisse entendre l'une des filles. Mais Kerstin est décidée venir en aide John. Elle ne tarde pas découvrir que chacun a des raisons de le maintenir isolé. De bien sinistres raisons."

Ruth Rendellová, která se proslavila nápaditými detektivkami, díly, které píše jako Barbara Vineová, prokazuje, že umí napsat i kvalitní ne-detektivní román s napětím a nečekanými zvraty. V příběhu Třinácté výročí vypráví o osudech Stelly, jejíž život se počítá už na měsíce, a její ošetřovatelky Jenny, která je v rozkvětu mládí. Přesto jsou si jejich osudy zvláštně podobné. Obě skrývají osudový vztah k muži, jehož tragika je dojemná i děsivá zároveň. Jako by Stella a Jenny byly dvě strany téže mince, Stella v sobě tají dávný zločin, Jenny se dostává do situace, kdy by k dalšímu zločinu mohlo snadno dojít. Hluboce prokreslené postavy, tajemná a krásná příroda a navenek poklidná vesnice, to vše dotváří předivo románu, který se umí dostat čtenáři pod kůži, takže si mimoděk říká - jak bych se v takové situaci zachoval já?

Snad každý v okolí má důvod nenávidět Patricka Selbyho. Jeho žena Tamsin ale udělá vstřícné gesto: pozve všechny na svůj narozeninový večírek. Druhý den po oslavě je Patrick nalezen mrtev. Vše nasvědčuje tomu, že zemřel na selhání srdce. Ale může být selhání srdce skutečně způsobené nepatrným vosím bodnutím?

Vrchní inspektor Wexford spolu se svým týmem vyšetřují smrt řidiče náklaďáku, Charlieho Hattona, kterého někdo zavraždil den před tím, než měl jít svému nejlepšímu příteli na svatbu za svědka.

Vrchní inspektor Wexford se svým zkušeným týmem řeší záhadné vraždy dvou mladých žen spáchané v krátkém časovém sledu po sobě úplně stejným způsobem.