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Charlie Hatton wanted fast money and conspicuous success, and he was prepared to cut any corners to get them. But before he could realize a single ambition, he was found dead at the edge of a river.
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LibraryThing member SamSattler
The Best Man to Die (1969) is the fourth novel in what would turn out to be Ruth Rendell’s twenty-four book Inspector Wexford series. The twenty-four novels were written between the years 1964 and 2003. Rendell, who died in 2015, may be best known for the Wexford novels, but the prolific author
The Best Man to Die begins with a stag party held in the Kingsmarkham and Districts Dart Club, one of the pubs in Inspector Wexford’s own stomping grounds. A small group of friends has gathered to boozily celebrate the next-day marriage of one of the men. They have been there for a while — and it shows — when the last of the group finally shows up and starts flashing a wad of cash around as he buys several make-up rounds for the others. The men only stop celebrating, and drinking, when the pub closes down for the night.
The next morning, while walking a dog his adult daughter has brought with her on a visit to her parents, Wexford himself discovers the dead body of the man who had been bragging about all the cash in his wallet. It all appears simple enough. The man has been bashed in the back of the head, stripped of his cash, and tossed into the river…a typical mugging of a man with too big a mouth for his own sake. Wexford, however, will soon learn that this is not just a mugging gone bad. Charlie Hatton’s is, in fact, just one murder in a string of murders that, according to the book’s jacket, involve “small-time gangsters, cheating husbands, and loose women.”
So where does Charlie Hatton fit in, and who wanted him dead?
Bottom Line: The Best Man to Die is a solid murder mystery, one that gets surprisingly complicated considering that it is barely 200 pages long. But what surprised me most about it is how different this 1969 novel is in style from the style Rendell later developed. This one has a rather old-fashioned feel to it that is exaggerated by the period in which it is set. Looking back, the 1960s do not seem all that long ago, but this novel is a reminder that, for many, life was still much as it had been in the 1940s and 1950s. It is also a reminder of how rapidly the world was already changing.
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also wrote numerous standalones and short story collections under her own name or using her Barbara Vine pseudonym. All told, Rendell produced near eighty books.The Best Man to Die begins with a stag party held in the Kingsmarkham and Districts Dart Club, one of the pubs in Inspector Wexford’s own stomping grounds. A small group of friends has gathered to boozily celebrate the next-day marriage of one of the men. They have been there for a while — and it shows — when the last of the group finally shows up and starts flashing a wad of cash around as he buys several make-up rounds for the others. The men only stop celebrating, and drinking, when the pub closes down for the night.
The next morning, while walking a dog his adult daughter has brought with her on a visit to her parents, Wexford himself discovers the dead body of the man who had been bragging about all the cash in his wallet. It all appears simple enough. The man has been bashed in the back of the head, stripped of his cash, and tossed into the river…a typical mugging of a man with too big a mouth for his own sake. Wexford, however, will soon learn that this is not just a mugging gone bad. Charlie Hatton’s is, in fact, just one murder in a string of murders that, according to the book’s jacket, involve “small-time gangsters, cheating husbands, and loose women.”
So where does Charlie Hatton fit in, and who wanted him dead?
Bottom Line: The Best Man to Die is a solid murder mystery, one that gets surprisingly complicated considering that it is barely 200 pages long. But what surprised me most about it is how different this 1969 novel is in style from the style Rendell later developed. This one has a rather old-fashioned feel to it that is exaggerated by the period in which it is set. Looking back, the 1960s do not seem all that long ago, but this novel is a reminder that, for many, life was still much as it had been in the 1940s and 1950s. It is also a reminder of how rapidly the world was already changing.
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LibraryThing member ccayne
I expected more. The narrator was wonderful and I enjoyed Wexford and Clytemnestra, the dog. There were many characters and two plots which you knew were going to intersect. I thought that the conclusion was weak.
LibraryThing member smik
I'm never quite sure whether I have read an earlier Wexford or not. With 23 titles in the series I guess I can be forgiven. Anyway, I have no memory of this story.
I was taken by the description of Wexford in the early pages, because it is so unlike my George Baker (TV) image. I've never thought of
All he needed, he sometimes thought, was a trunk to make him look exactly like an elephant. His body was huge and ponderous, his skin pachydermatous, wrinkled and grey, and his three-cornered ears stuck out absurdly under the sparse fringe of colourless hair. When he went to the zoo he passed the elephant house quickly lest some irreverent onlooker should make comparisons.
This is early in the Wexford series and I think Ruth Rendell is still finding her way, establishing her style. There are passages in THE BEST MAN TO DIE that are a bit floral, over-descriptive, and she still hasn't got to that economy of words that characterises her later books. There's a wry humour though, and what will become a typical ambiguity in the meaning of the title.
Wexford is in his fifties, and already working with Mike Burden. His elder daughter is married and his younger one living at home, still happy to pass her dental bills and other responsibilities on to Pop. There are nice snippets of the tensions of family life.
A lift is installed in the Kingsmarkham police station and Wexford, ever mistrustful of new gadgets, and very conscious of his weight, is of course in it on his own when it gets stuck between floors. Two hours in an airless lift nearly cuts short his career, but typically he sits on the floor and comes up with the solution to the crime.
In this novel Rendell seems to be toying with the idea of expanding the detective duo. Wexford's doctor, Dr. Crocker is a childhood friend, although six years his junior, and Wexford makes use of him a couple of times. I don't remember Crocker having much of a role in other books.
Altogether a nice read, proving for me that the early Rendell novels still have great appeal.
I was taken by the description of Wexford in the early pages, because it is so unlike my George Baker (TV) image. I've never thought of
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Reg Wexford as ugly.All he needed, he sometimes thought, was a trunk to make him look exactly like an elephant. His body was huge and ponderous, his skin pachydermatous, wrinkled and grey, and his three-cornered ears stuck out absurdly under the sparse fringe of colourless hair. When he went to the zoo he passed the elephant house quickly lest some irreverent onlooker should make comparisons.
This is early in the Wexford series and I think Ruth Rendell is still finding her way, establishing her style. There are passages in THE BEST MAN TO DIE that are a bit floral, over-descriptive, and she still hasn't got to that economy of words that characterises her later books. There's a wry humour though, and what will become a typical ambiguity in the meaning of the title.
Wexford is in his fifties, and already working with Mike Burden. His elder daughter is married and his younger one living at home, still happy to pass her dental bills and other responsibilities on to Pop. There are nice snippets of the tensions of family life.
A lift is installed in the Kingsmarkham police station and Wexford, ever mistrustful of new gadgets, and very conscious of his weight, is of course in it on his own when it gets stuck between floors. Two hours in an airless lift nearly cuts short his career, but typically he sits on the floor and comes up with the solution to the crime.
In this novel Rendell seems to be toying with the idea of expanding the detective duo. Wexford's doctor, Dr. Crocker is a childhood friend, although six years his junior, and Wexford makes use of him a couple of times. I don't remember Crocker having much of a role in other books.
Altogether a nice read, proving for me that the early Rendell novels still have great appeal.
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LibraryThing member MsGumby
This was my first Rendell book, and it was great. I love her characters and it was fun reading her descriptions of England in the late 1960s. She reminds me of Agatha Christie, and that's always a good thing!
LibraryThing member auntieknickers
As usual, I enjoyed this police procedural featuring Inspector Wexford -- I've read nearly all of them. I prefer these to her more literary psychological thrillers (some published as Barbara Vine); one can certainly see the same artistry at work in both types of books.
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Charlie Hatton, the best man for his friend's wedding, never makes it home from the bachelor party. Unusually for a police procedural, Inspector Wexford discovers the body, with a little help from the dog Wexford's daughter is watching for a friend. (Naturally Wexford, who is not a dog lover, ends
The relationships between Wexford and his colleagues, the witnesses, his family, and the dog, are more interesting than the case, which is rather dated. There's nothing particularly wrong with the writing or the plot, but it's probably not one of Rendell's best. I listened to the audio version read by Davina Porter, and I think I would have preferred a male reader for a book with mainly male characters.
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up getting stuck caring for the dog.) The dead man's recent lifestyle doesn't match his income. Might the unknown source of Hatton's extra income have something to do with his death?The relationships between Wexford and his colleagues, the witnesses, his family, and the dog, are more interesting than the case, which is rather dated. There's nothing particularly wrong with the writing or the plot, but it's probably not one of Rendell's best. I listened to the audio version read by Davina Porter, and I think I would have preferred a male reader for a book with mainly male characters.
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LibraryThing member crazeedi73
This was the best inspector Wexford book so far in the series. Of course I am only at number 4 . I like the fact that the author Paul more of the inspectors family in this book
LibraryThing member NHreader
I found this to be just ok
LibraryThing member scot2
This is one of Ruth Rendell's early Inspector Wexford stories. It's good but I feel that her later books are better. It is still worth reading though as a not so good Ruth Rendell book is far superior to many crime fiction books I have read recently.
LibraryThing member nx74defiant
Enjoyable mystery. I pretty much had it figured out before the Inspector did.
LibraryThing member alanteder
Two Shall Be As One
Review of the Arrow Books paperback edition (1981) of the John Long original hardcover (1969)
I read The Best Man to Die as part of my ongoing survey of classic crime writing. Ruth Rendell (1930-2015) is especially known for the psychological elements in her crime fiction.
The
Review of the Arrow Books paperback edition (1981) of the John Long original hardcover (1969)
I read The Best Man to Die as part of my ongoing survey of classic crime writing. Ruth Rendell (1930-2015) is especially known for the psychological elements in her crime fiction.
The
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Best Man to Die is a fairly early Chief Inspector Wexford novel, listed as #4 out of 24. All the personality traits are in place though with the occasional cantankerous behavior and the quoting of the classics. Two cases are involved here, the best man for an upcoming wedding is murdered the night before the ceremony and a mysterious car accident from several weeks before has an unexpected survivor. Wexford disentangles the rather complex set of clues that bring the two mysteries and solutions together. Show Less
LibraryThing member ChazziFrazz
Charlie Hatton is to be best man at Jack Pertwee’s wedding tomorrow. Tonight they get together with some of Jack’s other friends at the Dragon for the traditional stag party. At closing they all leave for home. Jack and Charlie walk to the Kingsbrook Bridge, where they each went their separate
Then there is the Fanshaw car wreck. Mr., Mrs. And daughter were on the way home when something happened and the car overturned and caught fire. The Mrs. Was thrown free and wound up in the hospital. What was the reason for the accident?
Interesting to note, Charlie’s body was found with a wad of cash in his pocket and he was sporting a set of dentures that set him back quite a bit. Also he lived with his wife in a nicely furnished place and she wore some costly clothes. How did they manage that on a lorry driver’s wage?
These two cases are just the start. Chief Inspector Wexford and his cheerless assistant, Burden, must unravel the twisting and turning threads to make sense of what happened and if there are any relationships between the two cases.
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ways. That was the last time Charlie was seen alive.Then there is the Fanshaw car wreck. Mr., Mrs. And daughter were on the way home when something happened and the car overturned and caught fire. The Mrs. Was thrown free and wound up in the hospital. What was the reason for the accident?
Interesting to note, Charlie’s body was found with a wad of cash in his pocket and he was sporting a set of dentures that set him back quite a bit. Also he lived with his wife in a nicely furnished place and she wore some costly clothes. How did they manage that on a lorry driver’s wage?
These two cases are just the start. Chief Inspector Wexford and his cheerless assistant, Burden, must unravel the twisting and turning threads to make sense of what happened and if there are any relationships between the two cases.
Show Less