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Featured in The Times Top 10 Crime Books of the Decade

The twenty-fourth 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 impossible has happened. Chief Inspector Reg Wexford has retired from the crime force. He and his wife, Dora, now divide their time between Kingsmarkham and a coachhouse in Hampstead, belonging to their actress daughter, Sheila.

Wexford takes great pleasure in his books, but, for all the benefits of a more relaxed lifestyle, he misses being the hand of the law.

But a chance meeting in a London street, with someone he had known briefly as a very young police constable, changes everything. Tom Ede is now a Detective Superintendent, and is very keen to recruit Wexford as an adviser on a mysterious murder case.

The bodies of two women and a man have been discovered in the old coal hole of an attractive house in St John's Wood. None of the corpses carry identification. But the man's jacket pockets contain a string of pearls, a diamond and a sapphire necklace as well as other jewellery valued in the region of GBP40,000.

To Wexford, this is definitely a case worth coming out of retirement for. He is intrigued and excited by the challenge, but unaware that this new investigative role will bring him into extreme physical danger...

Chosen by the Sunday Times' in 2015 as one of the 50 best crime and thriller novels of the last five years.

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
Ruth Rendell is a marvel, and in the latest Inspector Wexford mystery she's on cracking form ...A total page-turner - and one of Rendell's very, very best novels. -- A.N. Wilson
Everything that is brilliant about Rendell's writing is present in abundance in this novel: the vivid scene-setting, the knife-sharp social observations, the tiny telling details that contribute so powerfully to characterisation . . . The Vault is an excellent addition to an incredibly impressive series. * Sunday Express *
The Vault sees Rendell for the first time marry the two genres she is master of: the psychological thriller and the police whodunit . . There's not a clue out of place or a shoehorned plotline in sight. * Time Out *
Now Wexford has retired, Rendell has spotted an opportunity to bring her two strands together in a superb novel called The Vault . . . the author's sheer technical skill is evident as she effortlessly brings the original story up to date. Only a novelist whose characters feel intensely real to her could pull off such a coup. * Sunday Times *
The Vault, as a sort-of-sequel is a bold attempt to combine Rendell's two chosen specialties: the police procedural and the psychological thriller. No one hides the clues better than her; no one else creates such a pervasive atmosphere of almost comic disgust and dread. * Evening Standard *



Book Information
ISBN 9780099557357
Author Ruth Rendell
Format Paperback
Page Count 368
Imprint Arrow Books Ltd
Publisher Cornerstone
Weight(grams) 260g
Dimensions(mm) 194mm * 128mm * 26mm