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Not in the Flesh | 
 enlarge | Author: Ruth Rendell
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £6.98 (100%)
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Rating:  26 reviews
Sales Rank: 3163
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0099517221
EAN: 9780099517221
ASIN: 0099517221
Publication Date: July 31, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Paperback. A tidy, clean copy with light creasing to spine. VG condition.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk
The wait is over: here's a new Wexford novel. And Not in the Flesh is one of the sharpest, most astringent outings for Ruth Rendell's doughty copper in some time. Rendell's studies in dark psychology (which have at their centre characters who appear only in individual novels) are the most highly regarded among aficionados of her wok, but the unalloyed good feeling prompted by a fresh appearance for her long-term protagonist Inspector Wexford is something to be savoured, and we are once again in safe hands here.A man taking his dog for a walk in a wooded area stumbles across a grim object -- a severed human hand. The body to which it belongs has been hidden from sight for years, as Wexford subsequently finds out. Of course, with the uncountable numbers of missing persons in police files, Wexford is well aware it will be an uphill struggle tracking down the identity of the body. Shortly after, in the basement of a disused cottage, another victim of violence is discovered, and Wexford and his reliable team find themselves attempting to discover connections between the murders. Readers might wonder if the production of these utterly surefire Wexford books is an east task for Rendell (as opposed to the rigours of the grimmer psychological novels written under her own name, or the nom de plume Barbara Vine), but there's never a sense of the author on autopilot; this is professional, well-honed, engrossing stuff. --Barry Forshaw
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| Customer Reviews: Read 21 more reviews...
A disappointment November 21, 2008
Booklady (Ireland)
The book was very slow and lacked any element of supense. Wexford was solid as usual but the whole story had a very dated out-of-touch feel, in particular a set of characters who could have stepped out of the Fifties. Way too many characters as well. It was a challenge to recall who was who because the plot didn't grip me. The political correctness was extremely irritating and the female detective seemed to think more like a Seventies extreme feminist than a young contemporary woman. I'm not particularly talented at guessing solutions to murder but anyone would guess who and why in this story because from the first revealing reference it was painfully obvious. The conclusion had an unsatisfying off-scene feel to it as well. The Somali female mutilation theme had more life to it than the rest of the book. All in all, an unusually dull unimaginative work from this very talented author.
 A rather thin plot over reliant on coincidence November 10, 2008
John M (UK)
This was the first Ruth Rendell I had read, which I bought largely because two were on special offer in the local supermarket! The plot was rather thin and somewhat drawn out, particularly in the first half of the book. There was also a reliance on coincidence, such as a concurrent newspaper serialisation of the experience of a family following a husband's/father's disappearance who turned out to be an unidentified body, and coincidental trench digging and re-filling at the time of a murder. Also some scenarios stretched credibility, for example clothes containing money lying around for 8 years in derelict buildings, recollection of a T-shirt seen some 8 years previously, and unduly secretive behaviours, which were necessary to make the plot work. The ending was also rather telegraphed. To me it seemed to have a 'written for television' feel to it, and a churned-out book from an established author who can easily get a weaker piece of work published. However, I was compelled to read on, despite the rather weak plot and the number of annoying red-herrings during the body identification process (do police really take DNA samples before establishing siblings are not adopted!?). I have a second novel by the same author and hope this will be stronger.
I'm sorry to be saying this but ... November 9, 2008
fivestarfrankie (chippenham, wiltshire United Kingdom)
this book is just not good enough. Long after I worked out whodunnit and why Wexford is still going in the wrong direction. The writing is very good but the plotting is dreadful. I think back to how highly I rated Wexford novels 20 and more years ago and find it very sad that I can only give this two stars.
 Ghost written by Enid Blyton September 30, 2008
Neil Schwartz (Israel)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
This latest offering of the Inspector Wexford series opens like an episode from "The Famous Five". In fact Wexford's language would be more suited to Policeman Plod. To be fair, the book improves slightly and there is a bit of adult thinking in the plot but it is so far from her top form that it is a shame to publish it.
If Ruth Rendell intends to publish anything more I suggest she find a new ghost writer.
 Well, I enjoyed it! September 25, 2008
N. Shepherd (Prague, Czech Republic)
Dog tired after a long drive, I went to bed early intending to read the first couple of chapters of Ruth Rendell's new Wexford novel before succumbing to blissful sleep. That didn't happen - I turned the light out at 2 am, just after reading the last page.
It's difficult to summarise a detective story without giving too much away, so in brief: Two bodies are found on the same plot of land, and both have been dead for a long time. It is up to Wexford to find out who they are, why they were murdered and, of course, whodunit. This, of course, he does in his usual old-fashioned, inimitable style. Now written like that the story may not sound all that thrilling, but then I am not a great writer of detective stories and Ruth Rendell is, second only in my view to Peter Robinson. The purpose of a review is to make a recommendation one way or another, and mine is that anyone who enjoys (a) this author (b) detective stories and (c) well-written novels will lap this up.
The missing star is on account of a point alluded to by other reviewers. It is clear that Ruth Rendell abhors political correctness. So do I. What started out as a decent and honourable way to correct injustices has slowly but surely eroded the traditions, identity and even stability of this country. Most people - including the people PC is supposed to protect - regard PC as a blight on modern life. Thus I am more than happy for a famous author to have a go at PC. The problem is that this is the one thing that Ruth Rendell does badly, in this book and the preceding one. Constant and usually irrelevant references to PC keep jolting us out of the story. The ultra-PC Hannah Goldsmith is incredibly annoying - intentionally so perhaps, but she is a caricature rather than a character and thus unbelievable. The author realises that lampooning PC is likely to alienate her from the small but voluble group that support it, so creates a couple of over-the-top racist, bigoted characters that we can all sneer at. In summary, I'm all for people having a tilt against PC but this isn't the way to do it.
On the other hand she deals very sensitively with the issue that makes up the subplot, that of female circumcision. This subplot neither adds to nor detracts from the story, but raises an important point that deserves greater public awareness.
I hope that the one shortcoming I have outlined above will not deter readers from getting stuck into what I regard as a fine story from a fine detective writer. Enjoy!
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