End in Tears [Paperback]

Ruth Rendell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2006

This title is about a father's worst nightmare. It's first light and George Marshalson's daughter hasn't returned home. He doesn't yet know that she never will - that her body lies prone just yards from the family house. Or that he will himself make the shocking discovery. Chief Inspector Wexford has never known a case of a father finding the murdered body of his daughter. He has daughters of his own but can barely imagine himself in Mr Marshalson's position. Tasked with picking through the pieces of a shattered family, Wexford unearths some surprising secrets about the dead teenager's lifestyle. And when a second girl is found murdered - a victim unquestionably linked to the first - Wexford has to put his own family problems aside to tackle what will become of the most disturbing and emotional case of his career.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Rendell's riveting new novel in her Chief Inspector Wexford series (The Babes in the Wood, etc.) links two disparate worlds—a child-surrogacy ring and the construction trade. A teenage mother, Amber Marshalson, is found dead in the grass outside her home in Kingsmarkham, her skull crushed by a piece of brick. A short time later, Amber's pregnant friend, Megan Bartlow, turns up murdered in a seedy, about-to-be-rehabbed Victorian row house. Suspicions center on a tall man wearing a hooded fleece jacket. Against this sinister backdrop stands Wexford, who's in lion-in-winter mode. He's irked and perplexed by modern life, by the casual way young girls conceive babies, by the sprawl devouring the once-lush Sussex countryside, even by his own fractious family. But he never loses the anger and dedication that propel him to solve crimes and understand evil. While Rendell fans may find this not quite up to the level of her most recent non-Wexford, Thirteen Steps Down (2005), they should be well satisfied. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Ruth Rendell's quality work is both a blessing and a curse. With over 20 Wexford novels—and an even greater number outside the series and under her pseudonym Barbara Vine—reviewers have had ample opportunity to relish her characterizations and get wise to her narrative proclivities. Here they identify a case of the strengths of Rendell's writing (characterization and the use of metaphor) playing second fiddle to the contrivances of a thriller. Plot twists abound for those into neck-snapping plots, but most critics agree that Rendell is at her best when she foregoes narrative theatrics and focuses on the metaphoric parallels between plot and theme. End in Tears is not bad, but isn't great either—and for a writer of Rendell's status, just good doesn't seem to be good enough.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Arrow; New edition edition (August 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099491141
• ISBN-13: 978-0099491149
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 0.9 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,413,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Love doesn't excuse everything.", July 30, 2006

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: End in Tears: A Wexford Novel (Chief Inspector Wexford Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Ruth Rendell's "End in Tears" is her latest Chief Inspector Wexford novel. This time, Wexford is seeking the murderer of eighteen-year-old Amber Marshalson, who was bludgeoned to death on her way home from a late night out with friends. Along with Detective Sergeant Hannah Goldsmith and the rest of his team, Wexford interviews Amber's friends and family, and tries to find witnesses who may have spotted the attacker. When yet another young woman is found dead, the investigation quickly heats up.

This is a complex case, with many twists and turns that keep the detectives off balance. They find evidence that Amber and her friend Meg were engaged in a cruel money-making scam, but although the police suspect that the girls were dealing drugs, there are no facts to support this theory. Before the case is solved, Rendell explores the themes of family dysfunction, greed, racism, parenting, and aging with her usual expertise. The characters are well delineated and, as always, Rendell captures the English countryside perfectly with her superb descriptive writing.

There is also an entertaining subplot involving Detective Goldsmith's infatuation with Detective Constable Baljinder Bhattacharya. Although Hannah has no qualms about having casual physical encounters with men, Bal insists that he wants to be in a meaningful relationship before he becomes intimate with a woman. Hannah, who is an ardent feminist, cannot believe her ears and she is far from pleased by her colleague's apparent prudishness.

As the book passes the midway point, Rendell loses her way. She overcomplicates matters, introducing many extraneous characters and additional subplots that make the story a chore to follow. The solution to the crimes is completely out of left field, and if I didn't see Rendell's name on the cover, I would have difficulty believing that one of the great writers of crime fiction concocted such an absurd and unrealistic conclusion. This is too bad, since I adore Wexford, who is a kind, gentle, compassionate, and very intelligent man. Unfortunately, this time around, Rendell's fans will have to be to be satisfied with the well-written first half of "End in Tears."

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars How convoluted can you get?, October 4, 2006

By 

Wayne Price (Dallas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: End in Tears: A Wexford Novel (Chief Inspector Wexford Mysteries) (Hardcover)

As a devotee of the Rendell/Wexford series, it grieves me to say this one strikes out. I kept doggedly reading the thing, thinking, this surely can't be Rendell writing this. I can't remember any detective story with such a cast of extraneous characters, so many red herrings thrown out. The occasional insertion of Wexford's daughter Sylvia's predicament was refreshing, but the story itself bogged down quickly. Two girls dead, some unknown connection between the two of them, lots of suspects. Then comes the unlikelyl (absurd?) revelation of who the original ringleader was. Sadly, then, this reader admits disappointment over End in Tears.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The book with the split personality., September 15, 2006

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: End in Tears (Paperback)

The first half of the book is classic Ruth Rendell-- Wexford and Dora are their are at their best and most human. The teenaged victim has an unwanted child and a huge amount of cash. The set up is fascinating, and I was extremely happy that I bought the book.

But then, somewhere around the middle, Rendell seems to lose the plot. We follow increasingly complex series of red herrings down a garden path to an ending that is both irrational and unsatisfying. It honestly has the feel of an ending that the publisher demanded rather than the characters and plot required. It did not ruin the book for me, but it was a very close thing.

Fans of Rendell will still find a lot to like about End in Tears, but people new to her work should look back to her older material. This is not her strongest book.