Description:

The eleventh book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford.

Sir Manuel Camargue, Kingsmarkham's very own celebrity flautist, dies tragically on a snowy night. His death is met with a ruling of misadventure and appears to be an open-and-shut-case. However Wexford, as the investigating officer, has a few niggling doubts.

Nineteen years later, Camargue's entrancing daughter, Natalie, now a considerable heiress, suddenly reappears in Kingsmarkham. When her fiancé appeals to Wexford for help, believing that Natalie is using a false identity, the case of the Camargues is once more under investigation.

Events soon take a gruesome twist and the pressure is on for Wexford to discover Natalie's true identity and to solve the mystery of the Camargue family, once and for all.

From Library Journal

It has been said that the dramatic works of Shakespeare were written not by the poet-impresario but by another man with the same name. This is basically the plot of this otherwise very sophisticated and very English mystery by the author of such works as The Crocodile Bird (Audio Reviews, LJ 5/15/94). The term "anticlimax" scarcely does the work justice. In addition, reader Charles Kay, though sensitive and skilled, has a rough and not-very-pleasant voice. Also, the story, set in Thatcher's London suburbs, has a more than full complement of characters, several of whom are already dead when the action begins. This is a recording strictly for Rendell's fans, and libraries should purchase accordingly.

Preston Hoffman, Shelby, N.C.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"One of the best novelists writing today" -- P.D. James "The most brilliant mystery novelist of our time" -- Patricia Cornwell "Probably the greatest living crime writer in the world" -- Ian Rankin "[Wexford] has become an old friend who gets better with age" Herald "Rendell has quite simply transformed the genre of crime writing. She displays her peerless skill in blending the mundane, commonplace aspects of life with the potent murky impulses of desire and greed, obsession and fear" Sunday Times