970 9ae799f7-4fbe-458e-9163-490e5a4604d4 Simisola Ruth Rendell calibre (2.83.0) [https://calibre-ebook.com] 1995-10-04T22:00:00+00:00 <div><p>Only eighteen black people live in Kingsmarkham. One of them is Wexford's new Doctor, Raymond Akande. When the doctor's daughter, Melanie, goes missing, the Chief Inspector takes more than just a professional interest in the case. Melanie, just down from university but unable to find a job, disappeared somewhere between the Benefit Office and the bus stop. Or at least no one saw her get on the bus when it came. According to her parents, Melanie was happy at home. She had recently broken up with her boyfriend but, until now, there had been no cause to worry about her. And no one liked to voice the suspicion that something might have happened, that Melanie might be dead ...</p><h3>From Publishers Weekly</h3><p>The latest Chief Inspector Wexford mystery, in which a small town's racism turns deadly. <br>Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. </p><h3>From Booklist</h3><p>You might think we were dealing with <em>Prime Suspect IV</em>. In racist, high-unemployment Britain, a young, middle-class black woman goes missing, and the last person she seems to have spoken to--an unemployment officer--is found murdered in bed. Unfortunately, the struggle between social commentary and whodunit is so equal--think of two wrestlers, each unable to throw the other--that one soon tires of the sport. What went wrong? Rendell is the finest of the finest, an author who, like le Carre{‚}, often soars above her genre as if using it only to ground her craft. Is the problem the too-conventional nature of her Wexford series, or the too-conventional targets of her social criticism? In fact, the chief target of the author's criticism is an English law that permits wealthy immigrants to bring into the country servants who are part of their household but who are not legitimate immigrants in their own right--that is, who must stay with their "masters" if they are not to be deported. That these servants are often treated like slaves has not, so far, persuaded the Conservative government to change the law, and this is the source of Chief Inspector Wexford's (and Rendell's) quiet disgust. "We're all racists," the gentle Wexford says in the early pages, and the novel goes on to prove him right. But all this, of course, is a contrivance, and the story suffers under the burden; it has little force, momentum, or focus. True, Rendell firing on only three cylinders is more impressive than many firing on all four, but this is still a disappointment. <em>Stuart Whitwell</em></p></div> Bruna 9780099437314 ff7a8511-0d5c-45a2-aa18-edd60847f62d nld