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On a stormy February afternoon, little Stella Rivers disappears - never to be seen again. There were no clues, no demands and no traces. And there was nowhere else for Wexford and his team to look. All that remained was the cold fear and awful dread that touched everyone in Kingsmarkham.Just months later, another child vanishes - five-year-old John Lawrence. Wexford and Inspector Burden are launched into another investigation and, all too quickly, they discover chilling similarities to the Stella Rivers case.Then the letters begin. The horrifying, evil, threatening letters of a madman. And suddenly Wexford is fighting against time to find the missing boy, before he meets the same fate as poor Stella ...
User reviews
LibraryThing member Jim53
This is the second Inspector Wexford mystery I've read. Apparently the reader is supposed to be familiar with the inspector, because he isn't really introduced or described. Perhaps these books need to be read in order.
The setting is your basic English country towns, and the disappearance of a
Wexford is not a agreeable character. he is brilliant in connecting stories and constructing a solution from clues, but if he were real I would have no interest in meeting him. He is persistently rude to virtually everyone he meets. It's difficult to follow along with his reasoning in solving the crime because he confides in noone. Thus a reader like me who wants to try to solve the crime along with the detective is frustrated.
Rendell has a wonderful reputation, so I suppose I should try another of these, perhaps the first, but I won't rush right out to do it.
The setting is your basic English country towns, and the disappearance of a
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five-year-old boy has reminded the residents of the unsolved disappearance of a twelve-year-old girl months earlier. A fair amount of the novel focuses on one of Wexford's detectives, Mike Burden, and his struggles after the recent death of his wife; his story is connected to the plot, but it proceeds separately from Wexford's investigation.Wexford is not a agreeable character. he is brilliant in connecting stories and constructing a solution from clues, but if he were real I would have no interest in meeting him. He is persistently rude to virtually everyone he meets. It's difficult to follow along with his reasoning in solving the crime because he confides in noone. Thus a reader like me who wants to try to solve the crime along with the detective is frustrated.
Rendell has a wonderful reputation, so I suppose I should try another of these, perhaps the first, but I won't rush right out to do it.
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LibraryThing member jayne_charles
One of my favourite Wexfords - plenty going on, and the investigation takes unexpected turns.
LibraryThing member Cecilturtle
I can't say this was my favourite of Rendell's but a good read nonetheless. I particularly enjoyed Burden's character as a fallible, lost man who crosses over the professional line due to his mental vulnerability.
LibraryThing member ffortsa
A child disappears in a village where this has happened similarly before. Wexford's second in command gets involved with the distraught mother, definitely a no-no.
The solution to each disappearance is different.
The solution to each disappearance is different.