A brother, a sister, and their babysitter disappear in the woods, and Wexford's got it on lock.

This one really did it for me. The torrential, rainy atmosphere really pushed it over the top. Also really dug all the red herrings, they deepened the thematic threads running throughout. These families are so angry and despondent, and rightfully so. How will they make it through? Oh, perhaps them, um, not staying together is the best thing for all. ( )

Ruth Rendell is always good value. But this is even better value than most. Life isn't good anywhere in Inspector Wexford's community as the book begins: the area is dangerously flooded and the rain continues. Two teenagers and their 'babysitter' disappear when their parents are away for the weekend. Did they drown in the floods? Then the babysitter's dead body is found - some 3 months after the event. The landowner on whose property the decomposed crpse is found had actaully sen it significantly earlier. He's in trouble, his marriage is in trouble, the teenagers' parents marriage is in trouble. Wexford's daughter's marriage is also in trouble - unrelated to the deaths it's true.

Rendell plays with all these ravelled threads with her usual skill. The daily dramas of family and workplace life are interwoven with the increasingly complex threads of the plot, and right until the end, no resolution seems possible. But this is a murder mystery, so in the end the perpetrator is found. The identity may surprise you. ( )

Audiobook ( )

From experience, I know I should be wary about reading a Rendell mystery. Her characters are always so irritating. In this case even more so: the father of two missing children doesn't care a whit and considers their disappearance as an inconvenience. Wexford should have taken him in for questioning right away to give him a wake up call at the very least. After a meandering investigation I'm finished. This was wasted time for me. I kept hoping it would get better and it didn't. If you like Rendell's Wexford series, my advice is to skip this one. ( )

Not as good as others. ( )