Simisola [Hardcover]

Ruth Rendell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 11, 1995

Simisola, the 16th Inspector Wexford novel by Ruth Rendell, is at once a gripping mystery and an emotionally charged exploration of racism, sexual violence, and the urban ills that are infecting small, traditionally peaceful communities.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her 17th mystery starring Chief Inspector Wexford (after Kissing the Gunner's Daughter), Rendell casts a decidedly baleful eye on changes in the Sussex country town of Kingsmarkham and its people-the appearance of slums, the rise of decidedly fascistic attitudes and growing unemployment and hopelessness among the young. Against this dour backdrop, Raymond Akande, a thriving black doctor, comes to Wexford with a problem: his 22-year-old daughter has disappeared. Wexford, as patient and friend (a somewhat uneasy friend, because a "decent" Englishman of his generation cannot quite get used to blacks), feels bound to help. He uncovers a dark train of events: a girl who was apparently the last to see Melanie Akande alive is strangled; the body of another young black woman is found buried in the woods; and a sturdy Nigerian crossing guard is pushed down the stairs in her apartment block. Meanwhile, a flashy Arab lady running for the local council seems to be attempting to ensnare Wexford, and there is a mystery concerning one of her Filipino servants. The events are put together so methodically and believably, while the drawing of character and setting is so exact, that the book seems at times like a contemporary Middlemarch with a murder mystery at the heart of it. The solution is truly astonishing yet as logical as the rest of this splendid, passionately fair-minded and deeply disturbing novel-in which Rendell surpasses even herself.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

You might think we were dealing with Prime Suspect IV. In racist, high-unemployment Britain, a young, middle-class black woman goes missing, and the last person she seems to have spoken to--an unemployment officer--is found murdered in bed. Unfortunately, the struggle between social commentary and whodunit is so equal--think of two wrestlers, each unable to throw the other--that one soon tires of the sport. What went wrong? Rendell is the finest of the finest, an author who, like le Carre{‚}, often soars above her genre as if using it only to ground her craft. Is the problem the too-conventional nature of her Wexford series, or the too-conventional targets of her social criticism? In fact, the chief target of the author's criticism is an English law that permits wealthy immigrants to bring into the country servants who are part of their household but who are not legitimate immigrants in their own right--that is, who must stay with their "masters" if they are not to be deported. That these servants are often treated like slaves has not, so far, persuaded the Conservative government to change the law, and this is the source of Chief Inspector Wexford's (and Rendell's) quiet disgust. "We're all racists," the gentle Wexford says in the early pages, and the novel goes on to prove him right. But all this, of course, is a contrivance, and the story suffers under the burden; it has little force, momentum, or focus. True, Rendell firing on only three cylinders is more impressive than many firing on all four, but this is still a disappointment. Stuart Whitwell

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: Crown; First Edition edition (September 11, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517700735
• ISBN-13: 978-0517700730
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,671,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Simisola" - classic mystery as well as social examination, May 19, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Simisola (Hardcover)

In "Simisola" Rendell continues to delve beneath the outer
layers of the human psyche, exposing attitudes and perceptions
that both animate and lay bare her main characters.
Her detectives, the thoughtful Chief Inspector Wexford and
the pragmatic Detective Inspector Burden, provide two separate
approaches to racial tension, and domestic violence, in our
society. When a woman goes missing and two women are murdered
issues of race and domestic abuse become the key to the mystery
and each detective is forced to rexamine his own perceptions.
Rendell moves swiftly to the heart how we often delude
ourselves about our attitudes. On the surface this is a fast-
paced, exciting puzzle with a surprise solution in the best
tradition of the British mystery writers. Below the
surface, "Simisola" is an piercing examination of the
emotionally charged atmosphere surrounding the integration
of immigrants into a small traditional community.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chýef Inspector will hunt in the suburbs of England..., October 7, 1997

By 

RitterH "Audiobook Fan" (Istanbul , Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Simisola (Hardcover)

People lack the time for reading books; you may be concerned about the thickness of the book, do not!

A girls disappearence could not be more mysterious.

Chief Inspector Wexford's reasoning power is just behind the truth which disappears with every new fact untill the last page of the book.

The girl was last seen alive in an unemployment office... was she?

You find yourself in a maze of events which drag you from backstreets to reality; and then back again.

This book will be the beginning of Ruth Rendell series which are a fine blend of real life atmosphere and fiction.

The taste will still be there, and you will be hungry for more!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Vague Characters & Construction Undercuts Good Style, November 26, 2004

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Simisola (Paperback)

Ruth Rendell is often admired for her elegantly sparse prose and her psychological insight; I, however, too often find her novels vague in both character and construction--and her solutions more a matter of deux ex machina that actual deduction. And such is the case with SIMISOLA, a novel that finds unassuming Inspector Wexford first in search of a missing girl and then in search of a vicious killer.

As usual, Rendell writes with a graceful touch and brings a certain amount of social commentary into her novel, in this instance elaborating on both racism and joblessness in England. This sounds a promising mix, but Rendell proves quite typical of herself: when all is said and done most of her social commentary seems to have little to do with the story beyond providing a foggy sort of background to a somewhat forced conclusion. The ultimate effect is that of a novel you read a bit of and then put down--and maybe you pick it up again and maybe you don't. Certainly not one of her more interesting efforts.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer