what are Ruth Rendell books like?

[beautifuldays]

ok i have read and re-read all of my agatha christies, and i know whodunnit in every book. i need to find a new author!
i love murder mystery but prefer the agatha christie stiff upper lip detective in tweed type, rather than modern blood and guts. what's ruth rendell like? are her books similar to agatha christie? trying to work out whether it's worth buying some or not and whether i would like them.

am definately more of a midsummer murders than a rebus girl iykwim

Ruth Rendell writes in 3 different styles. Wexford ones would probably be the place to start. They are very readable iyswim. I've read them all!
She also writes mysteries, and then under the name Barbara Vine.

yes it was the inspector wexford ones i was looking at. are they gorey (sp) or scary in any way? i bought some of the touch of frost books as i like the tv series, but i couldn't read them they scared me stiff!

Nope, not too scary. More intriguing I think. Dh works nights and there's no way I'd read anything frightening when I'm on my own [wuss emoticon] as well
I'll try and think which ones I really liked.

BarbARA Vine ones are terrific.
Leave poor old Agatha in the dust.

BTW they are always sold in charity shops, and tons stocked in the library, so why not "try before you buy"

Moondog - agree, Barbara Vine fab. My fave I think is A Fatal Inversion, but didn't even finish The Blood Doctor (one of the few books ever I gave up on)

She's OK but not sufficiently psychopathic for me. I'm a Val McDermid gal. You really get into the psycho's psyche.

If you like Agatha Christie then you might like Patricia Wentworth, Ngaio Marsh and also M C Beaton.
Kate Ellis is good too.
I found the later Wexford books got a bit dark for my taste, you may not want to read anything after "Simisola".
I assume you have read all the Dorothy L Sayers and Margary Allingham?
Lindsey Davis is excellent but the ancient Rome settings can be a bit gory.
Try Sue Grafton as well.
Deryn Lake's "Death in..." series is very good.
I also like the Wycliffe series.
Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody mysteries are absolutely excellent as well. Like "murder in mesopotamia" but with Indiana Jones mixed in.

She is 'better' when writing as Barbera Vine IMHO

Love Asta's book

There's something very comforting about Inspector Wexford. You know the theory that crime fiction is fairy tales for grown ups i.e. the puzzle is solved, order is restored, baddies are punished, all's well that ends well etc. etc.? Wexford fits that bill. Fitting heir to Miss Marple IMO.

Her Barbara Vine books are gripping and disturbing.

Oh, Asta's Book was fab I longed for that dolls' house sent back/forward in time to my own childhood!

Ooh yes.A Fatal Inversion is fab.

Have you tried Christie's contemporaries, btw? Sayers, Wentworth, Allingham, Ngaio Marsh?

I was reading The Chimney Sweep's Boy while waiting for my c-section and have never forgotten it, likewise A Fatal Inversion
I think RR writing as Barbara Vine is very underrated as a novelist never mind a crime and mystery writer

Have you read all the early PD James novels beautifuldays? Her later books are terrible IMO, but the early ones are shocking and suspenseful without being at all gory

A couple of other cracking vintage reads: Trent's Last Case by EC Bentley, and Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles

Also, if you can get them from the library or secondhand, the fsbulous Flaxborough Chronicles by Colin Wilson. English village gothicism and IMO definitely pillaged for Midsomer Murders

But nobody ever gets skinned. Or mutilated in unspeakable ways. How on earth can you really relax and put your feet up, eh?

Seriously Asta's Book is utterly marvellous. (And made me think about my own Danish great-grandmother, who was exactly of that vintage in London.)

Oh i go for real crime if i want that.
Books with glossy blakck covers embossed with gold lettering about troubles adolescents form Kansas incarcerated in wooden boxes under the beds of trailer trash for years.

I'd start with early Wexford - although I too prefer her writing as Barbara Vine.

Marina - agree, try PD James. I loved Shroud for a Nightingale.

Now then MI, you're not at work now
Asta's Book is fab, agreed. But for me Ecalpemos is the one. Utterly chilling.

Anyone else like Kinky Friedman btw?

Well, you want Dorothy Sayers to start with.

You might also enjoy John Masterman (e.g. The Moving Toyshop).

Also Josephine Tey - Miss Pym Disposes is a pleasant start. The Man in the Queue is terrific if you can cope with the constant talk of 'dagos'.

Pull up a psychopath MI, and rest your weary feet.

From the modern gory details school of crime fiction, I like Kathy Reichs best.

PD James is clever-ish but too cold - no affection for humanity and definitely no sense of humour.

Oh choosy, I LOVE Josephine Tey, especially Miss Pym Disposes. It's such a shame she died comparatively young.