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No More Dying Then / Some Lie and Some Die
No More Dying Then / Some Lie and Some Die Author:Ruth Rendell Two titles in one. — No More Dying Then (originally pub. 1971) What kind of a person would kidnap two children? That is the question that haunts Wexford when a five-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl disappear from the village of Kingsmarkham. When a child's body turns up at an abandoned country home one search turns into a murder investigat... more »ion and the other turns into a race against time. Filled with pathos and terror, passion, bitterness, and loss, No More Dying Then is Rendell at her most chillingly astute. With her Inspector Wexford novels, Ruth Rendell, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, has added layers of depth, realism and unease to the classic English mystery. For the canny, tireless, and unflappable policeman is an unblinking observer of human nature, whose study has taught him that under certain circumstances the most unlikely people are capable of the most appalling crimes.
Some Lie and Some Die (originally pub. 1973) A superbly crafted mystery novel. It's short--in pages, and in time-line, and it's not overly burdened with plotting or diverting details. It is, in a word, elegant. The events (a murder, a missing girl, a palette of suspects) are set against the backdrop of a rock concert, complete with egotistical stars and fawning sycophants, spoiled fans and irate neighbors. But underlying it all are the basic human failings of self-absorption and greed and it is these motivations which lead to the horror and the desperation of the characters and their actions. Rendell is, as usual, an incisive observer of the dark side of humanity, and a writer who can portray the consequences with the short, deft strokes of a master craftsman.« less