End in Tears
The twentieth Wexford novel published by Hutchinson in 2005
The book is aptly titled, partly because of its focus on the brutal manipulation of childless couples conned out of substantial sums for babies allegedly to be borne by paid surrogates who may not fulfil their side of the bargain. The problems of surrogacy are also the basis of a poignant side plot in which only Wexford seems truly concerned with a year-old boy whose mother has been murdered and whom nobody seems to want.
It is impossible for Chief Inspector Wexford not to wonder how terrible it would be to discover that one of his daughters had been murdered. Sylvia has always been a cause for concern. Living alone with her two children, she is pregnant again.
The relationship between father and daughter has always been uneasy. But the current situation also provokes an emotional division between Wexford and his wife, Dora.
Notes
PD James and Ruth Rendell have dominated crime fiction for nearly four decades. Peter Guttridge finds both baronesses on top form with their latest offerings.
Sue MacGregor, Robert Macfarlane and Ruth Rendell discuss books by Samuel Butler, Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Roald Dahl.
Contemporary Reads 2
Jonathan Harr - The Lost Painting
Victoria Hislop - The Island
Louise Penny - Still Life
John Banville - The Sea
P.D. James - The Lighthouse
Footnotes
Washington Times, 2003. ↩︎
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