A review by sdbecque
A New Lease of Death by Ruth Rendell

3.0

Hmm, I've been reading this on and off, since I liked the earlier Inspector Wexford novel, but this one felt a bit like a let down. Mainly because the narrator is a Vicar and he is sort of dull. He frets about things, including the main reason for investigating a sixteen year old crime, his son wants to marry the daughter of the man hanged for the murder. So there's a lot of pearl clutching about "being a good person."Of course it was originally published in 1967, but the whole conundrum seems decidedly more British, the kind of reminder that for as much as the US has it's own fucked up issues around class, it hasn't really had the same sort of historical class system that England did. Anyway, I'm a stickler for reading things like this in order. So if I can get my hands on the next one I'll probably continue on with these. Hopefully the next one puts Wexford front and center again.