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.

The twenty-first book in the bestselling Detective Chief Inspector Wexford series, from the author of classic detective fiction and gripping psychological thrillers including End in Tears and Thirteen Steps Down. The past is a shallow grave...

About the Author

Ruth Rendell was an exceptional crime writer, and will be remembered as a legend in her own lifetime. Her groundbreaking debut novel, From Doon With Death, was first published in 1964 and introduced the reader to her enduring and popular detective, Inspector Reginald Wexford, who went on to feature in twenty-four of her subsequent novels.

With worldwide sales of approximately 20 million copies, Rendell was a regular Sunday Times bestseller. Her sixty bestselling novels include police procedurals, some of which have been successfully adapted for TV, stand-alone psychological mysteries, and a third strand of crime novels under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Very much abreast of her times, the Wexford books in particular often engaged with social or political issues close to her heart.

Rendell won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with A Demon in My View, a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986, and the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990. In 2013 she was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.

Ruth Rendell died in May 2015. Her final novel, Dark Corners, was published in October 2015.

Reviews
Rendell's genius with the whodunnit form works to make everything doubly vital. Without being remotely didactic, she is the pre-eminent thematic novelist of her day . . . Jane Austen would have approved of Rendell's cliche-dissecting wit . . . It's impossible to imagine her writing anything devoid of import. She is one of the rare breed that make you feel privileged to be around at the same time as they are. She doles out death so that we might feel more alive * New Statesman *
The queen of the whodunnit returns * Word *
Ruth Rendell's books are not only whodunits but whydunits, uncovering the motive roots of murder * Mail on Sunday *
Superb ... The suspense persists until the book's final sentences * Publishers Weekly *
Gripping and memorable * Sunday Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9780099517221
Author Ruth Rendell
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint Arrow Books Ltd
Publisher Cornerstone
Weight(grams) 204g
Dimensions(mm) 178mm * 110mm * 24mm