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    Not in the Flesh: A Wexford Novel
    Unavailable
    Not in the Flesh: A Wexford Novel
    Unavailable
    Not in the Flesh: A Wexford Novel
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Not in the Flesh: A Wexford Novel

    Written by Ruth Rendell

    Narrated by Tim Curry

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A new Chief Inspector Wexford mystery from the author who Time magazine has called "the best mystery writer in the English-speaking world."
    When the truffle-hunting dog starts to dig furiously, his master's first reaction is delight at the size of the clump the dog has unearthed: at the going rate, this one truffle might be worth several hundred pounds. Then the dirt falls away to reveal not a precious mushroom but the bones and tendons of what is clearly a human hand.
    In Not in the Flesh, Chief Inspector Wexford tries to piece together events that took place eleven years earlier, a time when someone was secretly interred in a secluded patch of English countryside. Now Wexford and his team will need to interrogate everyone who lives nearby to see if they can turn up a match for the dead man among the eighty-five people in this part of England who have disappeared over the past decade. Then, when a second body is discovered nearby, Wexford experiences a feeling that's become a rarity for the veteran policeman: surprise.
    As Wexford painstakingly moves to resolve these multiple mysteries, long-buried secrets are brought to daylight, and Ruth Rendell once again proves why she has been hailed as our greatest living mystery writer.

    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 10, 2008
    ISBN9780739366387
    Unavailable
    Not in the Flesh: A Wexford Novel
    Author

    Ruth Rendell

    Ruth Rendell (1930–2015) won three Edgar Awards, the highest accolade from Mystery Writers of America, as well as four Gold Daggers and a Diamond Dagger for outstanding contribution to the genre from England’s prestigious Crime Writ­ers’ Association. Her remarkable career spanned a half century, with more than sixty books published. A member of the House of Lords, she was one of the great literary figures of our time.

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    Reviews for Not in the Flesh

    3.5/5

    192 ratings20 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this - Wexford reminds me of Barnaby in Caroline Graham's novels... I'll be sure to read more.
    • 4/5
      Part of the excellent and most prolific Ruth Rendal series regarding Chief Inspector Wexford"
    • 4/5
      Part of the excellent and most prolific Ruth Rendal series regarding Chief Inspector Wexford"
    • 3/5
      Read on a long plane trip from New Haven to Honolulu; good vacation read. The dog digging up smelly truffles must be Rendell's spirit animal. Author specializing in psychological realism gets fantasy revenge on fantasy writers ("stabbed with a frenzy").
    • 4/5
      Another classic Wexford novel but with hints of modern life such as "voicemail" and "electronic messages". Like Ian Rankin, Rendell uses a younger female character (Hannah) to give the modern policing feel whilst Wexford remains resolutely against all things "P-C" from ideas as simple as the metric system... It's a traditional who-dunnit with an underlying sub-plot about female genital multilation. I kept expecting the two plots to come together however they never did. This didn't make either plot any less absorbing however.
    • 4/5
      The twenty-first book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford. Searching for truffles in a wood, a man and his dog unearth something slightly less savoury - a human hand. The corpse, as Chief Inspector Wexford is informed later, has lain buried for ten years or so, wrapped in a purple cotton sheet. The post mortem can not reveal the precise cause of death. The only clue to solving this mysterious murder is a crack in one of the dead man's ribs. Wexford knows it will be a difficult job to identify the dead body. Although it covers a relatively short period of time, the police computer stores a long list of missing persons. People disappear at an alarming rate - hundreds each day. And then, only about twenty yards away from the woodland burial site, in the cellar of a disused cottage, another body is found. The detection skills of Wexford, Burden and the other investigating officers of the Kingsmarkham Police Force are tested to the utmost to discover whether the murders are connected and to track down whoever is responsible.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book but it didn’t seem too different from the Inspector Lynley series by Elizabeth George, except for way better editing. There is the relatively well-adjusted Inspector (in this case, a family man who is even a grandfather), without an alcohol problem (although he likes a glass of red wine now and then), assisted by a number of detective constables of various races and genders, including a black male who disconcerts witnesses, and a white female who struggles with a weight problem. There is a lot of attention to detail, from the furnishings of houses they visit, to the coffee and/or tea they are offered by those they question, and to the meals they have.Rendell, who is a member of the House of Lords in real life, devotes a bit more time than Elizabeth George to social and political issues, but not so much as to be off-putting about it.The crime involves two skeletons discovered on unused property in rural Flagford, England, with the suspects primarily being the people living on its perimeter. As the story unfolds, the identity of the killers and motive for the crime became apparent even to me - among the most dense of readers, but it didn’t really detract from my enjoyment of the process.Evaluation: This book is a typical example of a British crime detective novel, and provides a pleasant way to pass an afternoon. The author is very popular and has won a number of awards from crime and mystery writer associations.Note: This is apparently the 23rd book in the series featuring Chief Inspector Wexford, but I had no trouble whatsoever following the plot.
    • 4/5
      Inspector Wexford marches on, amid the stumbling blocks of modern culture and the deepening shadows of age. His presence, as always, is a pleasure, as is that of Mike Burden. And the story in this mystery, as ever, is puzzling and well-crafted, with various interesting characters popping up and dropping out. As to the socially relevant subplot, something that I usually enjoy very much in this series, it seemed a little forced this time round. A minor quibble, but enough to make me give it 3.5 stars rather than the usual 4.
    • 4/5
      Literate, absorbing mystery. I'm never disappointed when I finish a novel by Ruth Rendell.
    • 4/5
      It’s difficult to review a mystery without giving too much away. In this case, all I need to say is that Ruth Rendell has written her typically good Chief Inspector Wexford mystery. The characters are familiar, they’re older, but they act as they always have. A relatively new character, Detective Sergeant Hannah Goldsmith, makes an interesting foil for Wexford’s reflections on age and a changing society.A familiar character, Inspector Mike Burden, “...had at last, regretfully, discarded his designer jeans for charcoal trousers with knife-edge crease and a stone-colored polo neck under a linen jacket.”Rendell continues to fit current social issues into her stories. She can be edgy at times but never crosses the line into the lurid or overly violent. I find her approach relevant and appropriate.Not in the Flesh has several plot threads that may or may not intertwine or ever be resolved. Discovered bodies, missing persons, migrant workers, immigrants, odd marriages, mysterious writings. It’s great storytelling. I understand that The Monster in the Box, which is the next Wexford mystery, is also the last Wexford mystery. It’s been a good run and a great reading pleasure.
    • 4/5
      It's a long time since my last rendezvous with Wexford and his chums, and I have missed some of his more recent outings. It's interesting to note the way he reacts to changes in the world around him over the years. Now he's forced to drink wine the poor love, and all his staff have taken to calling him 'Guv' because that's what happens on 'The Bill'.Rather less blood and gore than your average murder mystery, though the (slightly incongruous) subplot involving the Somali family is calculated to bring tears to the eyes of the queasy.I liked the book despite a rather convoluted plot that was hard to follow at times (particularly keeping track of the multitudes of missing menfolk). It also seemed that the crime was solved by the expedient of selecting one possible theory from an array of thousands, and running with it. Also, it's a small detail, but surely the copper who was going around loading police data onto his personal laptop was committing some kind of offence? What I liked about the book was the attention to detail in characterisation. I read on the back of one of Ruth Rendell's books an extract from a review that said she is 'great at writing about young people'. I would disagree - she is surely best at writing about old people, and when it comes to the sort of objectionable old gits that populate this novel, she is top notch.
    • 3/5
      The central mystery in this installment of the Wexford series concerns two bodies killed 3 years apart that are discovered on the same property in Flagford, near Kingsmarkham.True to formula Rendell interleaves the details of the CID investigation with both the personal lives of Wexford and his team, and a "social" subplot concerning the integration of Somali customs into the rural England of the early 21st Century.Sad to say for once none of these narrative strands are handled as well as long-time Rendell readers have come to expect. The solutions to the murders are signaled early on, and it's simply a matter of waiting for the right "type" of character to appear; we gain no great insights into the interior lives of the detectives and the Somali sub-plot is badly thought out and executed with bizarre pacing.This last is the most disappointing. In the past Rendell has done a fine job of discussing this type of issue in the context of popular fiction and I really wanted her to take care and apply the same even handed treatment she has given to e.g. Domestic Abuse in "Harm Done".Given the track record of the author, this later addition to the series is lightweight and disappointing. 2.5 stars.
    • 4/5
      Pretty good audiobook. I solved the mystery a few chapter before Inspector Wexford did, though. I hate that. I like to be surprised. :)
    • 3/5
      Two bodies are found in short succession on the same acreage of rural Flagford, England. One is determined to be eleven years gone and the other eight. Could this be just a coincidence? Methodical Detective Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford and his team will find out, even if it takes multiple visits to the many quirky residents of this little berg as well as to the cities where suspects may have moved in the long intervening years. Without a hint of gory violence Rendell slowly peels back the layers of her mysteries, revealing tidbits about the lives of the investigators as well as the suspects and witnesses. A side story about the growing Somali population in the neighboring city of Kingsmarkham and an attempt at an illegal genital mutilation seemed wholly out of place to the main story line. But readers who enjoy full-bodied literary mysteries will, once again, enjoy Wexford in this 21st title in Rendell’s long-running series.
    • 3/5
      not quite as good as ususal, although coverage of genital circumcision is good from such a popular author
    • 4/5
      I expected a lot from this tale, and it had a pleasant well-crafted feel to it that I enjoyed. It was also, however, infected with a strange stasis, as if everything was frozen, including time. The ending was predictable yet I still enjoyed it - because of the strength of the central character, I suppose.
    • 3/5
      I'm a huge fan of Ruth Rendel, but am coming to the conclusion that her Wexford novels aren't the ones that shine. I did become more involved about halfway through this one, but there wasn't anything WOW about the plot for me.
    • 1/5
      I used to love all of Ruth Rendell's novels, but think that I've become tired of the Wexford ones. Wasn't gripped by yet another man walking his dog and coming upon human bones, and didn't read beyond the first few pages. (Perhaps the rating isn't fair since I didn't really read it.) I continue to be fascinated by her other books--am reading Adam and Eve and Pinch Me now and am neglecting work for it.
    • 3/5
      NOT her best, the parallel social story seemed less integrated with the main murder, Sheila and Sylvia going through the motions, and for the first time I got it about half way through. Still, quite enjoyable!
    • 5/5
      Honey the dog is a wonderful hunter for truffles. But this time she unearths something less savoury - a human hand. Another case for the inveterate duo Reg Wexford and Mike Burden. The body is male, and has been there for over 10 years, wrapped in a purple bed sheet. In this story Reg Wexford seems to be a little less clearly drawn and we learn more about the dynamics of the team he works with. The plot is a spider web of threads. It is all about degrees of separation, those threads that draw us together. And running through all the murder mysteries, missing persons and threads of deception, something else Rendell has on her mind - female circumcision, ritual genital mutilation of young immigrant children, providing a rich undercurrent, shoiwng Rendell as aware of the issues of her times as ever.