Not a very satisfying book, quite ponderous.
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Wexford's The Return Of*
Review of the Arrow Books paperback edition (2010) of the original Hutchinson (UK) hardcover (1981).

So shall you hear
[Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,]
Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall’n on th’ inventors’ heads. All this can I
Truly deliver. - excerpt from Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 5 Scene 2, the source of the title and used as the epigraph for 'Put On By Cunning', except that Rendell drops the part in [square brackets].

This book continued my 2023 binge read / re-read of Ruth Rendell and this is the 11th of the Inspector Wexford series. I’m trying to read the Wexfords in chronological order but finished #12 and had to backtrack for #11, as it had been difficult to source until a single library copy arrived.

A famous local musician, Sir Manuel Camargue, dies by apparent accidental causes on the grounds of his estate in Kingsmarkham. The elderly Camargue was about to remarry a devoted fan and would have changed his will accordingly, but he died before the wedding could occur. His estranged daughter suddenly reappears to claim the inheritance. But according to the fiancée, Camargue had met the daughter just before his death and realized she was not whom she said she was, and that she even admitted it!

Wexford and his assistant Burden have to unravel the truth of the identity of the daughter and also determine whether Camargue's death was really an accident or was it murder?

See cover image at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5e/Putonbycunning.jpg
Cover image for the original Hutchinson (UK) hardcover edition from 1981. Image sourced from Wikipedia. By May be found at the following website: https://bookfever.com/book/71118/Rendell-Ruth-PUT-ON-BY-CUNNING-signed-first-edi...., Fair use, Link.

This was a superb Wexford and the only thing that kept it out of solid 5 star territory was that it was perhaps a bit too convoluted and that it relied on at least one very bizarre occurrence / coincidence.

Favourite Quote

Getting at last into their car, he remarked to Burden – apropos of what the inspector had no idea – that sometimes these cogitations still amazed the troubled midnight and the noon's repose. - Wexford quotes from T.S. Eliot's La Figlia che Piange (The Weeping Daughter) from Prufrock and Other Observations (1917).

Footnote
* I was going to title this 'Wexford's Return of Martin Guerre', but then wondered how well the classic 16th century historical case of imposture is known. You can read about it at Wikipedia. Note: The historical case is not a spoiler for the Rendell book as the fates are completely different.

Trivia and Links
Put On By Cunning was adapted for television as part of the Ruth Rendell / Inspector Wexford Mysteries TV series (1987-2000) as Season 4 Episode 9 in 1990 with actor George Baker as Inspector Wexford. You can watch the entire episode on YouTube here. ( )

An elderly man takes his dog out for a walk round the garden before going to bed. The next day he is found dead, drowned in the pond. Accident or murder?

I did notice some clues and realise their significance but still didn't manage to get all the way there. ( )

Sir Manuel Camargue era un flautista de fama mundial, quizás el mejor de todos los tiempos. Vivía en una gran casa en Kingsmarkham y, a sus ochenta años, se disponía a casarse con Dinah, una joven viuda que era amiga de la hija mayor de Wexford. Pocos días antes de la fecha de la boda, Camargue murió ahogado en el lago próximo a su casa. Aunque consideraba que la muerte era accidental, Wexford decidió asistir a la investigación practicada en el tribunal. Entre los concurrentes al acto destacaban dos mujeres muy distintas: una, en la primera fila, con los ojos y el perfil de una Callas; la otra, al final de la sala judicial, acurrucada como un ratoncito. Eran la hija y la novia de Camargue, respectivamente. Así comienza un curioso caso cuyas complejas pistas llevan a Wexford al otro lado del océano.

Another month, another Wexford. And a good one it is!

It pays off when reading this series to pay attention to detail. Rendell wastes few words, even when it seems she's simply adding a bit of local color or building out a personality. These places or people might not be important to the plot, but they very well could be. And in a book like this, where the plot is deliciously complicated, we are given plenty of diversions to lure us away from those incidentals. When they re-emerge and are pulled together at the end we have no choice but to say, "Well done again, Ms. Rendell! You hid nothing from us, and yet the conclusion is not what we'd expected."

Of course, for most of the book Wexford didn't put it together either, so I suppose we are to be forgiven.

One comment: the audiobook version I listened to (from Audible) was narrated by Charles Kay. Sadly, Mr. Kay's American accents are appalling. It would seem that at times he was trying to do something regional, but since they didn't even really sound American to begin with, that didn't work. I noticed that there is another version narrated by Davina Porter, who is always excellent. I recommend that you pick that one if you have the choice.
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