Ruth Rendell

Over the years there have been several unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town of Kingsmarkham, and Wexford (as a young policeman) quietly suspected that the increasingly prosperous Targo -- van driver, property developer, kennel owner, and animal lover -- was behind them. Now, half a lifetime later, Inspector Wexford spots Targo back in Kingsmarkham after a long absence.

The lives of three people--Francine, a child who hears her mother's murder while hiding in her room; Harriet, an aging beauty who seeks out handymen to ease her boredom; and Teddy, a young man who had been ignored by his parents since birth--converge with harrowing results.

"A female Vicar named Sarah Hussein is discovered strangled in her Kingsmarkham Vicarage. The gossipy cleaning woman who discovers her body, Maxine, happens to also be in the employ of retired Chief Inspector Wexford and his wife. When detective inspector Mike Burden calls him, Wexford, intrigued by the unusual circumstances of the murder, leaps at the chance to tag along with the investigators. A single-mother to a teenage girl, Hussein was a woman...

When Stuart Font decides to throw a house warming party in his new flat he invites everyone in his building. The party will be one everyone remembers; but not for the right reasons. Living opposite, in reclusive isolation, is a young, beautiful Asian woman, christened Tigerlily by Stuart. As though from some strange urban fairytale, she emerges to exert a terrible spell on the occupants of Lichfield House.

Wexford is horrified by the carnage he encounters at Tancred Manor, home of a famous anthropologist, but he is determined to do all that he can for 17-year-old Daisy, the only survivor of the mass murders that obliterated her family.

Once Guy and Leonora were lovers. Now it's over but Guy can't forget ... or forgive. Every day he calls Leo with fantasies about their love and their future. All she wants is him out of her life.

A young boy dies, another goes missing, and one mother's choice will forever alter many lives   When Benet's young son dies on the operating table, she cannot be comforted-not even by her mother who cares for a young boy just about the same age. Meanwhile, another mother's son goes missing, and police circle around possible suspects in what must be murder. These three mothers-the schizophrenic Mopsa, upwardly mobile Benet, and gold-digging Carol-become...

A young woman in London faces the prospect of a deadly thank you in return for an act of selfless generosity. She is Mary Jago who donates her bone marrow to save the life of a man she does not know. As her grandmother puts it, some people dislike those who have done them a service.

Sixteen-year-old Elvira's mother is dead. Elvira is sad, of course, but not so sad as her younger sister Spinny. Spinny is afraid their father, Luke, will be heartbroken, but Elvira knows better -- after all, Luke has her to take her mother's place. But then Luke brings home a pretty young woman and introduces her as his fiancee, and Elvira decides that she will stop at nothing to stop her father's marriage.

In Blood Relations, one of 11 stories in the collection, a woman discovers her stepfather's beaten body and says she has no idea who could have done it. But Inspector Wexford is convinced it was a family killing. A tale of infidelity, avarice and spouse abuse.