Product Description The thirteenth book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford.The raven: not a particularly predatory bird, but far from soft and submissive, adopted as the symbol of a militant feminist group... Detective Chief Inspector Wexford thought he was merely doing a neighbourly good deed when he agreed to talk to Joy Williams about her missing husband. He certainly didn't expect to be investigating a most unusual homicide.Rodney Williams was neither handsome nor wealthy - but he had an unerring eye for a pretty girl and when he disappeared and two other men were later attacked by a young woman, Wexford couldn't help wondering if there was a connection. If there wasn't, where was Rodney Williams and why had he vanished? He had committed no crime - apart from telling his wife the occasional lie... Review A brilliant reshuffling of a pack of clues . . . Rendell at her richest ?Sunday TimesWell-plotted . . . baffling . . . Still the tops ?Sunday TelegraphA climax as chilling and unexpected as any she's perpetrated before ?The Times 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.