Ruth Rendell (born February 17, 1930, South Woodford, Essex, England—died May 2, 2015, London) was a British writer of mystery novels, psychological crime novels, and short stories who was perhaps best known for her novels featuring Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford.
Rendell initially worked as a reporter and copy editor for West Essex newspapers. Her first novel, From Doon with Death (1964), introduced Wexford, the clever chief inspector of a town in southeastern England, and his more stodgy associate Mike Burden. The pair appear in more than 20 additional novels of police procedure, among them No More Dying Then (1971), An Unkindness of Ravens (1985), The Veiled One (1988), Road Rage (1997), The Babes in the Wood (2002), Not in the Flesh (2007), and No Man’s Nightingale (2013). In 1990 the Wexford stories were first adapted for television.
In time Rendell’s psychological thrillers, which present the inner lives of complex characters as they move incrementally toward violent actions, became at least as popular as the Wexford series. Sexual obsession, immaturity, exaggerated fantasy lives, and the gap between parent and child are recurring elements in such novels as A Judgement in Stone (1977), The Lake of Darkness (1980), Talking to Strange Men (1987), and The Bridesmaid (1989). Rendell also wrote tense short stories such as the Edgar Award-winning “The New Girl Friend” and the collection Blood Lines: Long and Short Stories (1995). She produced several novels under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, including King Solomon’s Carpet (1991), The Brimstone Wedding (1995), Grasshopper (2000), The Birthday Present (2008), and The Child’s Child (2012). Her other works include The Crocodile Bird (1993), The Keys to the Street (1996), The Rottweiler (2003), The Water’s Lovely (2006), and The Girl Next Door (2014). Rendell was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1996 and was made a life peer in 1997.