OK so we are off and running and my first book review of the year is the latest Inspector Wexford mystery by Ruth Rendell, The Monster in the Box. This has garnered slightly mixed reviews and comments have been made that this might be the last Wexford novel. I understand they are the author's least favourite out of all her output, so this is always a possibility and has been for some time.
I started reading the Wexford books in the 1970s when Wexford was about 40 and, it therefore follows that he must be about 70-odd by now and well past retiring age. This is always a problem for crime writers - Dame Agatha Christie portrayed Hercule Poirot as being retired from the Belgian Police force when he first appeared in The Mysterious Affair at Styles way back in the 1920's, so working on the premise that he was about 40 then, well by the time he made his final appearance he must have been well into his eighties. Same thing for Ngaio Marsh and the gorgeous Roderick Alleyn, but we all have to suspend disbelief in the aging process and not let it get in the way of a good murder...
So what is Inspector Wexford doing in this latest novel? Well, he has spotted somebody he knows walking around Kingsmarkham, a man by the name of Eric Targo, someone he thought he would never see again. Years earlier when Wexford was a young police officer he was involved in a murder investigation, a woman called Elsie Carroll had been found strangled in her bedroom and though suspicion fell upon her husband he was never convicted. Shortly afterwards another woman was strangled and Wexford felt that the killer was at large and he knew it was Eric Targo.
"The man looked at him, met his eyes, stared. The stare was absurd, sinister, it went on so long. Wexford turned away towards the car which would take him home. Once he looked back and saw the man still there, still gazing at him. And he remembered saying to himself, that man, he did it. Whoever he is, he killed Elsie Carroll and then he said, don't be ridiculous, don't talk, don't even think such nonsense"
Years later, when he sees Targo again, Wexford tells his story and his suspicions to Mike Burden who dismisses it as fantasy. But then Wexford sees Targo's van watching his house and his newly employed gardener is found strangled in the same way as the murders all those years ago. This time Wexford is determined to track him down and charge him with this murder and then, Targo disappears....
The narrative of the current investigation is inter cut with Wexford's reminiscences of his past and his youth as he reflects on how things have changed since he joined the force. We even learn how he met Dora, his wife, but Ruth Rendell cannot resist a mischievous touch here and leads us beautifully up a garden path. There is also an investigation into the disappearance of a young Asian girl who Wexford's colleague, Hannah Goldsmith, suspects might be being forced into an arranged marriage. All three strands run alongside and across one another throughout the length of the novel and, as the reader suspects, they become interlinked and entwined with each other by the denouement.
I liked this book very much. It has an elegiac quality to it, Wexford looking back and musing on his life and career which was what probably led to the comments regarding the possibility of this being the last in the series, but when pressed on this subject, Rutyh Rendell would not commit herself. Very wise. Odd that she finds Wexford her least favourite character when he is one of her most popular creations. But then Agatha Christie got seriously fed up with Poirot as well....
The reviewers who claim The Monster in the Box is not up to her usual standard are wasting their breath. Those of us who have read all of Ruth Rendell's output (and I am one of these), know full well that her slightly lower standard is still streets ahead of many other current detective fiction writers. I was not disappointed though I was slightly puzzled that this particular story seems to be slightly out of date - we have references to the smoking ban that might come into force when Wexford and Burden are having lunch in the pub, people listen to Walkmans and it all has a 1990's feel about it. It does make you wonder if she had this manuscript tucked away somewhere and she brought it out and decided to turn it into a Wexford novel. Ok, fine, but I am surprised that her editor did not update it.
Still, as I said I liked this book very much and did not allow this to get in the way of my enjoyment.
