Harm Done: An Inspector Wexford Mystery (Wheeler Large Print Compass Series) - Hardcover

With Harm Done, Rendell has added a remarkable strand of acute social commentary to a book that still functions as an utterly compelling piece of detective fiction. With the controversial subject of paedophilia, she takes the mainstay of her work--problems of modern life--to a level of passion and commitment that gives the book a truly powerful underpinning.

Back in the familiar Sussex town of Kingsmarkham, Rendell's dogged sleuth Wexford is investigating the strange abductions of two young girls: Rachel, a bright middle-class student, and Lizzie, a mentally disabled 16-year-old living with her unsympathetic parents on a grim council estate. When both girls return home, apparently unharmed, Wexford is faced with a curious mystery: what really happened to them? As Wexford begins to uncover the disturbing truth, the dark psychological world that Rendell is so adroit at exploring suddenly comes into focus. And her gift for sharp but concise characterisation remains untouchable as in the case of a reluctant witness: " ''We don't talk about that sort of thing'. She very nearly but not quite tossed her head." --Barry Forshaw

"No contemporary writer of suspense stories tries to vary the form's boundaries more than Ruth Rendell" (Guardian)

"The Wexford books clearly display Rendell's great mastery of storytelling at its best" (Sunday Telegraph)

"It is hard to think of another crime writer who so effortlessly incorporates real events [...] into genre fiction, and in a serious manner... Rendell's detective fiction stands almost alone as a chronicle of the dark side of modern life... Rendell offers sufficient clues and red herrings to satisfy the msot dedicated puzzle-solver... Harm Done is a vivid demonstration of Rendell's contribution to contemporary fiction" (Independent)

"One of the greatest novelists presently at work in our language... a writer whose work should be read by anyone who either enjoys a brilliant mystery - or distinguished literature" (Scott Turow)

"More lifelike than many sophisticated thrillers" (Sunday Times)