The vault : an Inspector Wexford novel

 by Ruth Rendell. In Rendell's twenty-second Inspector Wexford novel, Wexford is now six months retired from the Brighton Police and living part of the year in a well-heeled carriage house in a posh part of London. Rendell is brilliant at showcasing London as seen through the eyes of Wexford on his long walks. She's also brilliant at showing how Wexford feels a bit pointless in retirement. Saving both Wexford and Wexford fans from withdrawal is an offer from a former colleague to serve as unpaid advisor to the police on an especially tricky case. In this latest Wexford, Rendell follows up on a famous cottage and some of the victims and villains of her suspenseful A Sight for Sore Eyes (2000). When the newest owner of the cottage made famous in a painting moves a heavy outdoor planting and opens a manhole beneath it, he discovers four entombed bodies. Forensics determines that three of the bodies (two men and a woman) have been there for 12 years. Another body, a woman, has been there only 2 years. Wexford, as usual, takes the lead in tying together the strands of the cold case with the more recent murder. A family crisis, in which his daughter suffers grievous bodily harm in a stabbing, adds to Wexford's struggles. Rendell, who has won a clutch of British Gold Daggers and American Edgars, is at the top of her form here. . HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Wexford remains one of the best-loved British coppers still on the beat (or almost on it, as he's now officially retired). Fans will take him any way they can get him. --Booklist (Check Catalog)