As the woman's past is investigated the husband is either oblivious or may be among the numerous suspects. He is not flashy and has no particular character tics, at least in this novel, that would distinguish him from detectives in scores of other procedurals yet I appreciated his matter of fact attitude toward the case. Rendell's England is less than quaint (despite the amounts of tea put away), her world is distinctly darker and its denizens are distinctly more immoral. The plot is a decent one, it's intriguing enough, but I have issue with the characterisation of people, I know it's the early nineties, but I have no recollection of people being to purist and straight laced. The novel introduced her popular recurring character Inspector Wexford, who went on to feature in 24 of her novels.

I am sure that a proof reader could have easily rectified the mistakes and, although I expect to see them in a self published book, it is unacceptable to find so many in a traditionally published ebook.There is a strong sociological commentary throughout, in this book in particular as far as class differences and sexual politics go and author's attitude is stunningly, notably progressive for the time. The character of Chief Inspector Wexford here is somewhat colder than the character in the later books and the TV series.

What makes me sad is that Terrence Hardiman, who did such an amazing job narrating this, did not record the later stories when they were turned into audiobooks as I had loved his voicing of Wexford and Rendell’s prose. My own thought is that while Wexford receives helpful information that we don’t have, the reader ought to be able to get ahead of him by at least thinking to ask a question. From what I can tell, this is not only the first book in Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series, but also her first published novel.

From long experience Burden knew that whatever may happen in detective fiction, coincidence is more common than conspiracy in real life. Wexford doesn't really make a strong impression as a leading character (in fact quite a good amount of the investigating falls to his partner, the aptly named Inspector Burden), but he shows much potential, intellectual and emotional astuteness and solid detecting skills.