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Harm Done

Harm Done

The eighteenth Wexford novel published by Hutchinson in


Rendell’s observations on social issues like adolescent rebellion and domestic violence are both perceptive and unnerving, and they cut across the class divide. So do the problematical questions she raises about civil disobedience and vigilante justice. Although she gives her moral endorsement to Wexford, a decent man who can see and even agonize over “the paradox of the innocent victim declared guilty and the ruthless perpetrator emerging guiltless,” she has great compassion for desperate people who act from the best intentions and somehow manage to do the most devastating damage.

Marilyn Stasio 1

Two young girls disappear and then return home unharmed some days later. Chief Inspector Wexford is concerned about a paedophile who has recently been released back into the community, but he cannot foresee the series of serious crimes waiting to happen.

Notes

Contemporary Reads 2

Footnotes

  1. New York Times, 1999. ↩︎

  2. Book links may earn this site a small commission. ↩︎