Kissing the Gunner's Daughter [Abridged] [Audiobook] (Audio Cassette)

In this absolute thriller by Ruth Rendell, the author begins "Kissing the Gunner's Daughter," and she doesn't let go of the suspense until the book is finished. A longtime fan of Rendell's Chief Inspector Wexford series, I believe this is my favorite, and I've read them all. Rendell, often called the "Queen of Crime" by the Brits (in fairness, so has P.D. James and Ellis Peters--it depends on which publisher you're reading, I suppose!) presents her lovable Wexford and assistant Mike Burden out to solve another crime in Kingsmarkham.

Police are called when three bodies are discovered shot at Tancred House; only the seventeen-year-old daughter of one of the victims survives; it is from her that the police get their initial clues. As the story develops, of course, not all the clues are what they seem. Wexford is at his best and as the list of suspects continues to grow, it is his remarkable powers of deduction and intuition that prevail.

Along the way, the chief inspector must struggle with a rift he has recently had with his daughter Sheila--this affects his abilities to see clearly, too.

The "Sunday Times" writes that "Ruth Rendell has quite simply transformed the genre of crime writing. She deploys her peerless skills in blending the mundane, commonplace aspects of life with the potent, murky impulses of desire and greed, obsession and fear." In "Kissing the Gunner's Daughter" she holds the reader spellbound to its explosive end. It is a novel that begins and ends not with a whimper but with a bang!

In this absolute thriller by Ruth Rendell, the author begins "Kissing the
Gunner's Daughter," and she doesn't let go of the suspense until the book is
finished. A longtime fan of Rendell's Chief Inspector Wexford series, this is my
favorite, and I've read them all.

Rendell, often called the "Queen of Crime" by the
Brits (in fairness, so has P.D. James and Ellis Peters--it depends on which publisher
you're reading, I suppose!) sends her lovable Wexford and assistant Mike Burden
out to solve another crime in Kingsmarkham.

Police are called when three bodies are discovered shot at Tancred House; only
the seventeen-year-old daughter of one of the victims survives; it is from her that the
police get their initial clues. As the story develops, of course, not all the clues are
what they seem. Wexford is at his best and as the list of suspects continues to grow,
it is his remarkable powers of deduction and intuition that prevail.

Along the way, the chief inspector must struggle with a rift he has recently had
with his daughter Sheila--this affects his abilities to see clearly, too.

The "Sunday Times" writes that "Ruth Rendell has quite simply transformed the
genre of crime writing. She deploys her peerless skills in blending the mundane,
commonplace aspects of life with the potent, murky impulses of desire and greed,
obsession and fear."

In "Kissing the Gunner's Daughter" she holds the reader spellbound to its
explosive end. It is a novel that begins and ends not with a whimper but with a
bang!

Some of the characterisation, particularly of the central personae, is very perceptive, and at times amusing. However, besides the tendency to make these characters rather unbelievable and larger-than-life, there are just too many people in it, many of them unnecessary, which has a confusing and irritating effect, particularly as the author insists on giving them all a thumbnail characterisation. Perhaps this is intentional, but I feel it does nothing for the book.

The author juggles the various strands of the story capably, but there were a few places where I squirmed uncomfortably - for example, the explanation of the slang term "the plod". It is in fairly common use these days, and the explanation seems patronising. In general there seem to be quite a few of these explanatory asides which give the book a feeling of having been aimed at a very young clientele, although some of the descriptions, in particular the scene of the massacre would, hopefully, preclude this.