Ruth Rendell Read Alikes
Rendell writes British psychological thrillers and police stories. End in Tears is part of her Inspector Wexford series. In a sadly familiar story a lump of concrete is deliberately dropped from a bridge and kills a person. About the same time a bludgeoned teenager is found in the woods. Are the two murders connected in some way? Wexford must find the killers or killer while dealing with an unfriendly press.
If you enjoy her books, you may also like the books and authors listed below.
- River of Darkness
- by Rennie Airth
- Airth's mysteries, set in post-World War I England, feature protagonist Detective Inspector John Madden of Scotland Yard. River of darkness was nominated for Edgar, Anthony and Macavity awards. Airth found inspiration in an old scrapbook about his uncle, a soldier killed in WW I. Sent to a town in Surrey to investigate the murder of a family, Madden uses experiences he garnered in the war to lead him to the killer.
- In a Dark House
- by Deborah Crombie
- A warehouse burns down, within is the charred corpse of a woman. At the same time a beautiful hospital administrator has disappeared. James and Kincaid must put aside their personal problems to solve these crimes and rescue a very frightened little 9 year old girl....
- The Remorseful Day
- by Colin Dexter
- The murder of Yvonne Harrison had left Thames Valley CID baffled. But one man has yet to tackle the case and it is just the sort of puzzle at which Chief Inspector Morse excels. So why is he adamant that he will not lead the re-investigation, despite the entreaties of Chief Superintendent Strange and dark hints of some new evidence? And why, if he refuses to take on the case officially, does he seem to be carrying out his own private enquiries? For Sergeant Lewis this is yet another example of the unsettling behaviour his chief has been displaying of late.
- The Funeral Boat
- by Kate Ellis
- Ellis skillfully interweaves ancient and contemporary crimes in an impeccably composed tale. In the present, after a boy discovers a skeleton on his mother's small holding, Hefferman suspects it's that of the boy's disreputable father, who vanished three years earlier. Peterson, whose degree is in archeology, thinks it may be far older, that of a Viking. The author tidily brings all the solutions together, Danish Viking mixing with modern-day Devonian, while an absorbing plot smoothly blends archeology with current forensic procedures.
- The Hours Before Dawn
- by Celia Fremlin
- When the Henderson's rent a room to make a little extra money they at first think that Miss Brandon, their new lodger is a perfectly ordinary harmless woman. Louise Henderson soon has doubts about her, but cannot convince her husband anything is wrong. By the second time baby Michael is 'mislaid', Louise is very worried but is becoming less and less sure of her own sanity. Fremlin deserves to better known for her creepy psychological thrillers.
- Blood from Stone
- by Frances Fyfield
- When Marianne Shearer, a successful barrister at the height of her career, kills herself, a tenacious colleague, Peter Friel, is determined to find the reason for her suicide. Fyfield, a lawyer herself, wanted to write romance but found everything she wrote turned to crime. She has been nominated or won several awards for her mysteries.
- A Great Deliverance
- by Elizabeth George
- Roberta Teys, a silent, obese adolescent, is accused of killing her church-going father with an axe. The detectives sent by Scotland Yard to investigate are a mismatched pair. Inspector Lynley is smooth, attractive and utterly upper-class; "stubby, sturdy" detective-sergeant Havers, is overly conscious of her plain appearance and lower-class origins. In sifting slowly through the ashes of the past, the detectives find enough horrific skeletons in every closet to lead them to a climax unexpectedly loaded with fire and fury.
- Hotel Paradise
- by Martha Grimes
- Spunky Emma Graham, the 12-year-old narrator, works in the family's frayed-at-the-edges resort hotel. Emma's only connection to youngsters her age is her consuming interest in the death by drowning of another 12-year-old girl 40 years ago. Emma cleverly manipulates crotchety old ladies and backwoodsy old men in her pursuit of answers. Emma's take on the colorful characters in her small-town world make this both a provocative study of lonely people and a delightful read.
- Necrochip
- by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
- Slider is called on when a teenager finds a human finger among the fried potatoes at a London fish-and-chip shop. Body parts continue to surface as events expand to include a sinister tycoon, a prostitutes' rooming house, three mysterious Asians and five murders...Surprises abound.
- A Certain Justice
- by P. D. James
- The book begins with news of a murder, but the victim isn't set to die for another four weeks. Publicly respected but privately loathed, Venetia Aldridge has far more enemies than even a criminal lawyer should--and at least one of them is determined to do her in. P. D. James makes us admire far more than her brilliantly developed plot. James in fact creates a crowded gallery of surprisingly decent suspects.