Following on from Nancy Walters' The Devil's Feather, End in Tears by Ruth Rendell was a pleasure to read. There is a plot, there are sub plots, there are good, bad and indifferent characters, there is duplicity, lying, cheating and, of course, a couple of murders or so. There is also, in the case, an international element to resolve.

One thing that puzzles me, however, is the design of the cover: take a look when you're next browsing and see a man in a misty, mysterious looking wood. The man is silhouetted and has his back to us and he is wearing what looks like a heavy Winter coat. He should be wearing a hooded fleece! That's a central point of much of the story so how could they get that wrong?

A young woman, Amanda, is murdered following a night on the tiles. She is very young, just finished her A levels but she is already a mother. She lived at home with her father and step mother. She was also involved in a car accident a couple of months earlier when someone threw a lump of concrete at the car in front of hers. A woman in the other car died but although Amanda's car crashed into the other one, she came away unscathed.

Amanda was killed by a blow to the head with a brick and I'll bet you didn't know that an expert in bricks is called a plinthologist!

That sets up the story very well indeed. The cover would be a good one were it not for the wrong coat being worn (very Wallace and Gromit).

Amanda's father finds his daughter's body and he is distraught: he in turn is found by the milkman.

Inspector Wexford comes to call and by a series of plodding steps, no offence, sets to work on the case. We are treated to a series of interviews and analyses, not to mention a couple of fry ups as Wexford and his team get to grips with the case.

Savoury and unsavoury people come and go and having found £1,000 in Amanda's pocket, Wexford begins to suspect drug running. After all, Amanda and a friend took a trip to Frankfurt a short time ago and why else would they go there: two young girls on business?

One of the sub plots involves Wexford's own daughter and it is a spelling mistake made by another detective and his daughter's plight that sets Wexford off on the right road eventually!

I'm not giving much away when I say that drug running wasn't their game but fairly quickly we find that the other girl has been murdered too. She was also murdered by having been stuck on the head with a brick. Unfortunately, the bricks being used are very common and could have been found anywhere.

All of the people who come into this story and who might have had cause to be involved in the murders have a water tight alibi. In typical style, when asked where they were on 1st September last, they all rattle off a story of great certainty and apparent accuracy that one just has to believe them. Whilst this is odd and there is a small amount of consternation in this part of Wexford's work, they don't seem to me ever to challenge any of these people over their certainty.

For example, if it were me instead of Wexford I think I would challenge them by asking them about 1st Sept and then about 31st August or 2nd Sept ... just to see how certain they really are about their lives in general. The chances are that they will fail that test and then the door is open for a major challenge.

Twins arrive: one handsome, clever ... the other care worn with a massive chip on his shoulder. The care worn one is essentially being looked after by his more fortunate brother. These two become critical to the investigation but Wexford doesn't find it too easy to pin them down initially.

We are treated to an amorous interlude that started, faltered, only when I'm sure it's love will I sleep with you, disaster, then reconciliation.

We are also treated to some good detective work as the lord of the manor becomes involved in the story: this becomes the crux of the matter and it will probably come as a surprise to you. The story itself is not new and it's centred on stories that you have probably seen on the news and in the newspapers. Rendell incorporates that story into her own story very well.

We learn the reality behind the trip to Frankfurt as faxes, emails and phone calles unearth a German couple who have been cheated out of some money by Amanda and whoever else she was involved with. This seals the fate of just about everyone in the case now although there is more good detective work to go first.

All of the criminals are caught and presumably they are all found guilty and sent to prison. I just realised as I was finishing this book that we always assume that the Wexfords of this world have found out the whole truth and that the people they arrest really did do it and really will spend time in prison.

Well, there you are: a reasonably good story that is worth turning the pages of and that won't take you too long to read, despite it 328 pages.

Stylistics

A couple of bones to pick with Rendell: Janet and John were alibied! What on earth does that mean Ruth?

Then Rendell has a detective keeping a flat under surveillance and talks about ... loitering with intent to commit a felony. We don't have felonies in Britain, dear. Technically you will be able to justify it but it's a term that we don't use here, do we. Very TV talk, I call it.

Page 238 reveals a bell push and an inhalator. Again, who has a bell push in England and an inhalator should be an inhaler at the very least.

Rendell isn't as guilty of the degradation of our language as many modern authors but I found examples like those and they annoy the life out of me!

Duncan Williamson
18 December 2005