So shalt thou feed on death,
that feeds on men,
And death once dead,
there’s no more dying then.
One February afternoon, young Stella Rivers vanished without a trace. Despite a heavy police operation, no sign was ever found of the young girl, alive or dead. Hope was given up on ever finding her, when five-year-old John Lawrence, also from Kingsmarkham, disappears as well. And then the letters start appearing.
Inspector Wexford and his Sergeant Mike Burden take up the case, but Mike has other things on his mind. Recently returned to work after the death of his wife, he is a complete mess, neglecting his work and his family. But he is about to make an even more worrying choice, one that could put the case, his career and his family at risk.
The sixth book in the Wexford series, this is my entry into Past Offences’ 1971 Reading Challenge. As I’ve intimated, I’m having a Ruth Rendell month on the blog and meant to go a little later in the Wexford books for my second choice, but discovered that I didn’t actually have a copy of the recommended Shake Hands Forever. So I did a quick check and realised that I could kill two birds with one stone with this one.
Difficult one, this one. The mystery is rather clever, making perfect sense and yet still being surprising. I didn’t spot the killer and yet it is logical and also resonates with the real characters that generally populate Rendell’s work. You can tell there’s a but coming, can’t you…
Mike Burden isn’t my favourite character at the best of time. He’s seems to be in a permanently bad mood and can generally bit somewhat intolerant of others – see his opinions on the festival goers in Some Lie And Some Die. So when he gets the majority of the page count, and he’s doing some pretty inconsiderate and fairly stupid things, that’s not going to enthral me, I’m afraid. Of course, his actions here are due to his grief, and I hope that I never have to experience the loss that he goes through before this book, so I can’t judge if his actions are believable or not. But they make difficult reading and unfortunately ended up distracting me from the mystery plot in the Wexford strand.
But compare this with the classic mysteries of the time and the development of the character is to be applauded. Wexford, for example, is still suffering from ill-health from an earlier book and Burden’s life moves forward (even if it’s not in an enjoyable way). It’s entirely possible that other readers will resonate with the Burden part – my reaction may be a personal one – and the other part of the book is very good. But I do hope that next time I visit the Wexford canon, the back story will be more agreeable.
So, worth a look, but hard to recommend fully. Anyone else read it and want to chip in?
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
Ha! It’s many years since I read this, but I recall enjoying it precisely because there was lots of Burden!
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As I said, maybe it’s a personal thing. I’ll be curious to see how Burden is portrayed in the more recent books.
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Burden is I think rather well-named … well-drawn, but hard to disagree with you about him.
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It would be easier to sympathise if he wasn’t such a narrow-minded individual in at least one of the later books. But there are people like that – why should our leads always be enlightened individuals?
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Not if you want contrast …
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An insightful review, Steve. You don’t often talk about the characters in this way. I think I would understand Burden’s reaction to death. His behavior rings true to me. There is a certain personality type who cannot function when a spouse or loved one dies and it can be truly devastating with behaviors manifesting that are a detriment of others. I know when my Dad died I was not fun to be around for several months. I’m going to have to read this Rendell novel. I tend to prefer her non Wexford books and the Barbara Vine books because they seem to be populated with a lot of troubled complex characters similar to Sgt. Burden.
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It’s hard not to refer to character in the Ruth Rendell novels as it’s always such an important part of the story. It’s possible that Burden’s behaviour doesn’t sit well with me is in part due to my not having suffered such a tragedy in my life to date and not knowing how I would react troubles me a little.
Thanks for the nice comments, John,
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I just want to give people the heads up—-the newest Paul Halter book The Picture From The Past (originally L’image trouble) is now available to order from Amazon.
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Only in paperback, not as an ebook. Shame.
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Yes, and that too at the high price of 18 dollars plus shipping. I have sent an email to John Pugmire requesting him to release the kindle edition early.
(My email has changed)
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Good news ! The kindle edition of The Picture From The Past has just been released.
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Check your twitter. It contains good news that will be on-topic in a week or so.
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Eddie – been thinking about this a little and while this is fantastic news, a) I’m not sure how many people are going to spot it in a comment about a Ruth Rendell book and b) it has nothing to do with this book. So I’m going to leave this comment here for a few days and then delete it. There’ll be a review of The Picture From The Past soon to give people a clearer reminder. I think Twitter is a better place for such news.
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If Eddie’s comment is removed, then so will all the sub-comments. Rather unfortunate, since there include 2 of mine. 🙂
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Yes, but the same argument applies. They’re nothing to do with this book.
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Thank you. I just ordered the book for Xmas. I look forward to reading your review.
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“I think Twitter is a better place for such news.”
This is why I posted the latest update to your Twitter account.
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I have read The Picture From The Past and my review is available at Amazon.
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Once you wrote a post on The Mystery Of The House In Goblin Wood.
It seems that you’ll have to write a post on The Mystery Of Like This, For Ever !
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Um… why?
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Well, like The House In Goblin Wood, the other book appears again and again in that list !
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I agree with John, a very insightful review. It has been a long time since I have read this, and I don’t remember having difficulties with Burden in any of the books. But I was a different reader back then. I think I have all the Wexford books and plan to reread them eventually. (Although I think I missed some of them in the 90’s when I was not reading fiction so much.)
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[…] No More Dying Then by Ruth Rendell […]
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[…] was responsible for selecting 1971 as December’s year, read the Inspector Wexford mystery No More Dying Then as part of a Ruth Rendell month at In Search of the Classic Mystery […]
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