Customer Reviews

Veiled One

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Veiled One is Rendell's 14th Inspector Wexford mystery, and as excellent as all the rest. The continued quality of this series is remarkable. There have only been one or two slightly lacklustre books in it, and those were very early on in her career.

One November evening, Wexford drives him from Barringdean Shopping Centre, noticing nothing amiss. He is preoccupied with family matters. precisely, his daughter Sheila who, in protest, has damaged Ministry of Defence Property, the wire fence surrounding a nuclear weapons facility. An actress, her face is automatically splashed across the papers.

Later, at home, Burden phones through with the news: a garotted body has been founding in the Shopping Centre Car Park, hidden between two cars. She is identified as Gwen Robson, a home-help of late middle-age, who lives in Kingsmarkham with her arthritic husband. However, before Wexford himself cna do much investigating, he too faces death, in the form of a politically motiovated car-bomb inteded for his daughter Sheila. So, Mike Burden forges ahead on his own, quickly narrowing in on a suspect, the son of the woman who found the body. But are his intuitions right?

This is probably Rendell's most psychologically rich mystery. Some of the characters are quite odd, and she lays them psychologically bare, creating fascinating and rather unsettling psychological portraits. Indeed, the depth with which she examines her characters in this book is probably unequalled in any other Wexford novel.

Wexford is on excellent form again, and it's often easy to forget quite what a great lead character he is. An aging policeman, increasingly puzzled by the foibles of society - which Rendell highlights with a percision that emphaises the sharp social conscience of this novel - he should, perhaps, be a little dull. But no! For he's actually a interesting, funny, real human being. A relatively gentle policeman who gradually unravels the solutions to the puzzles which confront him. He has a home life which is realistic and entertaining, and he is quite simply very good company.

The Veiled One is not just a rich psychological mystery, but also an excellent puzzle. The investigation shifts and twists, and the solution is singularly surprising. It's an uneasy, disturbing, unusually gripping police-procedural that has distinct echoes of some of Rendell's psychological thrillers, although never strays quite into that territory. It's an excellent book in the series, but I would say that it's not the best Wexford novel for new readers to start with. To appreciate it fully, it helps if you already know the characters well. My advice is to read the very first Wexford mystery, From Doon With Death, and then simply look forward to this one.

For many years I have enjoyed reading Ruth Rendell's books. This was the first book I bought in its kindle edition and I had trouble recognizing her style. Not only is the this edition peppered with uncharacteristic spelling errors, I also got the feeling that the story moved in leaps and bounds, giving an unfinished impression. Towards the end of the book I even came across two author's notes, which were placed in brackets, referring to things the author meant to look up at some point. I have reached the conclusion that this electronic edition must have been copied from some kind of draft manuscript. I did not appreciate reading this version and found it inferior to what I am used to from this author.

The Veiled One was the first Ruth Rendell novel and I am delighted to report that I was thoroughly captivated and entertained. Rendell writes fluid prose with interesting characters and acute observations about human nature and behavior. I particularly liked the main character Wexford and his naturally dry and mostly sarcastic wit. The mystery is well plotted and wraps up neatly. To be honest, the ending did occur to me, but by the time I got to the end I was impressed enough by the whole effort that I didn't care about that at all. The ending is quite satisfying... the type that makes sense while still surprising enough. I look forward to many more enjoyable evenings with Ruth Rendell and Chief Inspector Wexford.

I've read everything Rendell/Vine has written, most twice or more. It's obviously a matter of taste, and she's probably not for those whose preference runs to fast-moving shoot-'em-ups or scientific detection treatises, but for me there is no one better at exploring/elucidating the workings of the human heart and especially of the unhinged mind. By far the most interesting element of "The Veiled One" was Det. Burden's increasing bafflement and growing dismay over his interactions with a suspect. Rendell has doubtless written better books, but there are few other authors who've produced anything approaching the insight and writing in "The Veiled One."

This a most satisfying Wexford and Burden tale of detection, and all the better for not being an overtly "psychological" novel, with which it should not be compared.

If you are more interested in the process of the detection of the crime, and in the characters who detect, rather than in the warped mind of its perpetrator, you will enjoy this as much as any other in the series.

Ruth Rendell made her name with Wexford and Burden, and she still writes at her best when she returns to the genre which first brought her success. This is no exception.

The victim in this excellant mystery is less than likeable, but the most important element to me was the growing sense of impending tragedy. The subplot involving the good inspector's daughter's anti-nuclear activities adds to the enjoyment of the book

I don't find Ruth Rendell's Wexford mysteries as engrossing as her psychological novels, but anything by Rendell is nevertheless entertaining and well worth reading. This one finds Wexford and his partner, Mike Burden, investigating the death of an older woman found strangled in a parking garage at a shopping mall. Numerous suspects abound in the woman's neighborhood but Wexford is soon incapacitated, however, by a car bomb (meant for someone else). Burden takes the lead by pursuing a withdrawn young man who lives with his domineering mother. Burden's intuition fails him though and it is Wexford who eventually identifies the killer by subtly noting the habits and motivations of the suspects and even the items they purchased in the shopping mall. The book is a little overlong for a Wexford mystery and gets sluggish a little in the middle but picks back up toward the end. Every character seems like a likely culprit (the victim was a blackmailer) and it is hard to see what is coming until close to the last chapter. If you are just beginning with Ruth Rendell, don't let this one detract you from her - she is one of the best writers in the world today.

I found this book unsatisfying. Maybe I just don't like the circuitous nature of English mysteries. Maybe I need more action and less talk. Fewer -- and more relevant --red herrings. And I resist the English mystery tradition of the know-it-all detective who, in Sherlock Holmes fashion, gathers people around him at the end and in great detail tells what went down and by whom. Whatever. I just found the book so-so.

Rendell usually has a reason for the titles of her books, although some are really weird. For this one, she creates a saying that one's closest relation is both veiled to us and yet is also at times unveiled. The saying is not altogether apt, but in this Chief Inspector Wexford mystery he and his associate Burden peel back layers of a woman's psyche slowly but thoroughly to reveal the killer behind her facade of chilling disinterest.

For those interested, this book is available as part of a two book package, ISBN # 0 09 187009 7, which combines the present novel with "Lake of Darkness" at a bargain price: both books are good, and I preferred "Lake of Darkness."

This is not a long novel, but it is a compelling read and it is hard to put down. Overall it is well balanced to a point, but becomes a bit complicated in the second half. It has good characters, a good plot, and it has mystery. The book came out in 1988.

The story involves a murder at a shopping center, and the murder is solved by detective Wexford.

So, overall the story is good but there are a number of complications as we reach the end. Because of that, I thought it was a bit too complicated and some comments were slightly extraneous. But, it is an excellent read, and it is both compelling and entertaining.

Recommend: 4 stars.