No Man's Nightingale

Retired. Some of the fictional detectives I like most seemed frozen in time, while others age along with the rest of us. The 24th Inspector Wexford novel by Ruth Rendell titled, No Man’s Nightingale, presents this character very well settled into his retirement. His current project is reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. What gets him out of his reading chair is the murder of a female vicar who is biracial and a single mother. Social issues of the present trump the story of the past, so Reg Wexford leaps at the request of Detective Superintendent Burden to join him on the case. Rendell does her usual fine job of laying out lots of suspects and letting Wexford be himself. Readers who like this series and detective crime fiction in general are those most likely to enjoy this novel. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase No Man’s Nightingale from amazon.com.