Ruth Rendell

Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, (born February 17, 1930), is a British best-selling mystery and psychological crime writer, often called the Queen of Crime.

Born in London, the daughter of teachers, Ruth (Barbara), née Grasemann, worked as a journalist for Essex newspapers before creating her character Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford, the protagonist of her first police procedural From Doon With Death (1964). Wexford's latest case is End in Tears (2005).

Parallel to her Wexford procedurals are Rendell's psychological crime novels wherein she explores themes such as sexual obsession, the effects of misperceived communication, chance and the humanness of criminals, in books such as Judgment in Stone, Live Flesh, Talking to Strange Men, The Killing Doll, Going Wrong, and Adam and Eve and Pinch Me.

Rendell created a third strand of writing with the publication of A Dark Adapted Eye under her pseudonym Barbara Vine in 1986. Books such as King Solomon's Carpet, A Fatal Inversion and Anna's Book (original UK title Asta's Book) inhabit the same territory as her psychological crime novels while they further develop themes of family misunderstandings and the side effects of secrets kept and crimes done. Rendell is famous for her elegant prose and sharp insights into the human mind, as well as her ability to create cogent plots and characters. Rendell has also injected the social changes of the last 40 years into her work, bringing awareness to such issues as domestic violence and the change in the status of women.

Many credit her and P.D. James for changing the entire genre of the whodunnit, altering it more into a whydunnit. Several of her works have been adapted for film and television, including The Tree of Hands and the Pedro Almodovar film Live Flesh.

She has received many awards for her writing, including the Silver, Gold and Cartier Diamond Daggers from the Crime Writers' Association, 3 Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America, The Arts Council National Book Awards, and the Sunday Times Literary Award. She was made CBE in 1996 and a life peer in 1997. She sits in the House of Lords as a Labour baroness.

Bibliography

Novels

• To Fear a Painted Devil (1965)
• Vanity Dies Hard (1965)
• The Secret House of Death (1968)
• One Across, Two Down (1971)
• The Face of Trespass (1974)
• A Demon in my View (1976)
• A Judgement in Stone (1977)
• Make Death Love Me (1979)
• The Lake of Darkness (1980)
• Master of the Moor (1982)
• The Killing Doll (1984)
• The Tree of Hands (1984)
• Live Flesh (1986)
• Talking to Strange Men (1987)
• The Bridesmaid (1989)
• Going Wrong (1990)
• The Crocodile Bird (1993)
• The Keys to the Street (1996)
• A Sight for Sore Eyes (1998)
• Adam and Eve and Pinch Me (2001)
• The Rottweiler (2003)
• Thirteen Steps Down (2004)

Inspector Wexford Series

• From Doon with Death (1964)
• Wolf to the Slaughter (1967)
• The Best Man to Die (1969)
• A New Lease of Death (1969)
• A Guilty Thing Surprised (1970)
• No More Dying Then (1971)
• Murder Being Once Done (1972)
• Some Lie and Some Die (1973)
• Shake Hands Forever (1975)
• A Sleeping Life (1979)
• Put on by Cunning (1981)
• The Speaker of Mandarin (1983)
• An Unkindness of Ravens (1985)
• The Veiled One (1988)
• Kissing the Gunner's Daughter (1991)
• Simisola (1994)
• Road Rage (1997)
• Harm Done (1999)
• The Babes in the Wood (2002)
• End in Tears (2005)

Barbara Vine

• A Dark-adapted Eye (1986)
• A Fatal Inversion (1987)
• The House of Stairs (1988)
• Gallowglass (1990)
• King Solomon's Carpet (1991)
• Asta's Book (1993)
• No Night is Too Long (1994)
• The Brimstone Wedding (1995)
• The Chimney-sweeper's Boy (1998)
• Grasshopper (2000)
• The Blood Doctor (2002)
• The Minotaur (2005)

Novellas

• Heartstones (1987)
• The Thief (2006) (written as part of the adult literacy Quick Reads series)

Short story Collections

• The Fallen Curtain (1976)
• Means of Evil (1979) (four Inspector Wexford stories)
• The Fever Tree (1982)
• The New Girlfriend (1985)
• The Copper Peacock (1991)
• Blood Lines (1995)
• Piranha to Scurfy (2000)

Non-Fiction

• Ruth Rendell's Suffolk (1989)
• Undermining the Central Line (1989)
• The Reason Why: An Anthology of the Murderous Mind (1995)

Awards and Accolades

• 1975 - Mystery Writers of America Best Short Story Edgar: The Fallen Curtain
• 1976 - Gold Dagger for Fiction: A Demon in my View
• 1979 - Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award (shortlist): A Sleeping Life
• 1980 - Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award (shortlist): Make Death Love Me
• 1981 - Arts Council National Book Award for Genre Fiction: The Lake of Darkness
• 1984 - Silver Dagger for Fiction: The Tree of Hands
• 1984 - Mystery Writers of America Best Short Story Edgar: The New Girlfriend
• 1986 - Gold Dagger for Fiction: Live Flesh
• 1986 - Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award (shortlist): The Tree of Hands
• 1986 - Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award (shortlist): An Unkindness of Ravens
• 1987 - Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award: A Dark-adapted Eye
• 1987 - Gold Dagger for Fiction: A Fatal Inversion
• 1988 - Angel Award for Fiction: The House of Stairs
• 1990 - Sunday Times Award for LIterary Excellence
• 1991 - Gold Dagger for Fiction: King Solomon's Carpet
• 1991 - Cartier Diamond Dagger for a Lifetime's Achievement in the Field
• 1996 - CBE
• 1997 - Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award
• 2004 - MysteryInk Gumshoe Award for Lifetime Achievement
• 2005 - Dagger of Daggers (best crime novel to have won the Gold Dagger award (shortlist)): A Fatal Inversion

External link

• 1990 audio interview with Ruth Rendell by Don Swaim of CBS Radio, RealAudio
• detective fiction resource site Ruth Rendell bibliography