The Babes in the Wood
(2002)
Blurb:
My review:
Possibly
the
best Wexford for some time. Here are all
the hallmarks of Rendell’s writing at its best: a palpable yet
indefinable
atmosphere of wrongness, reflected in
the vanished children and their sinister minder, the religious cult and
the
dysfunctional families, all unhappy in their own peculiar way (she
should adopt
the line as her motto); a number of highly unpleasant yet sharply drawn
and
interesting characters, of whom it must be admitted that the neurotic
Mrs. Dade
gets on one’s nerves, and Sophie is too much of a caricature; an
unusual
setting that feels increasingly real, for the flooded Kingsmarkham is,
like
Beulah Height, part of our world; and
a soundly constructed and engrossing plot: unlike the all-too-often
flabby
James,
Rendell justifies her length. The
solution recalls Carr at his best in its psychologically surprising yet
convincing revelation; and the murderer, although a minor character, is
satisfactory
enough.