Did Manuel Carmague, a famous flautist, die in an accident or was he murdered? Did his death have anything to do with the fact that he was going to marry a woman fifty years younger than himself? Was his daughter returning home after years of separation really his daughter or an impostor? If she was an impostor, how could she manage it so well and when did the substitution take place?

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I’m continuing to get acquainted with the works of this very original, gloomy, unpredictable and unmistakable English writer of detective novels. Once again I meet Chief Inspector Wexford who is always sixty, no matter what year it is – and always impossible to deceive, even if it takes him some time to arrive at the truth. He won’t entertain us by disclosing to us his deductions the way Hercule Poirot would do, but he is fascinating in his own, Wexford, way. I don’t always understand how he arrives at the truth at the end of each book, but I always look forward to the moment when he will reveal the solution to Burden and/or someone else.

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“King Solomon’s Carpet” is one of the books Ruth Rendell wrote as Barbara Vine. An award-winning book, too, but I didn’t like it much when I read it for the first time, which must have been about four years ago. I found the book depressing and put it back on the shelf at once.
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“Harm Done” is the fourth – and so far the last – book from the Chief Inspector Wexford series that I have read. It’s also the longest, and no murder happens in it until page 350, which is the last quarter of the thick volume. But I never thought of putting the book aside.
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When Chief Inspector Wexford gets sick, due to a new virus that causes people to lose their balance and fall as they walk, he visits Dr Akande – and soon goes home consoled and even miraculously cured. When Dr Akande calls him in a few days and tells him his daughter Melanie is missing, Wexford is only too willing to help, but it takes him a lot more time – nearly a month.
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“From Doon with Death” is the first novel ever written by Ruth Rendell, the one with which she earned recognition as a new master of the genre. Probably its being the first is the reason why it reads so easily without putting any strain on the reader. In fact, it’s not much shorter than “Shake Hands For Ever” by the same author, but, unlike the other one, gives no feeling of being unnecessarily stretched. There’s nothing depressive about it, either.
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It’s a Chief Inspector Wexford mystery and my first ever acquaintance with the character. I’ve read a book by Barbara Vine – and Barbara Vine and Ruth Rendell are the same person – but my dear friend Ann once recommended that I read the Chief Inspector Wexford series. She thought I’d like it. What’s more, she sent me a gift – an parcel in which several of those books were neatly placed.
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