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266th out of 395 books
—
2,078 voters
The Monster in the Box (Inspector Wexford #22)
by
Ruth Rendell
Inspector Wexford returns in his most surprising case yet
"He had never told anyone. The strange relationship, if it could be called that, had gone on for years, decades, and he had never breathed a word about it. He had kept silent because he knew no one would believe him. None of it could be proved, not the stalking, not the stares or the conspiratorial smiles, not the ki...more
"He had never told anyone. The strange relationship, if it could be called that, had gone on for years, decades, and he had never breathed a word about it. He had kept silent because he knew no one would believe him. None of it could be proved, not the stalking, not the stares or the conspiratorial smiles, not the ki...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
October 13th 2009
by Scribner
(first published 2009)
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I know Ruth Rendell is a good writer. She must be because so many people enjoy her books. I read in a review somewhere or other that Reg Wexford was the most real of all the fictional detectives, and that's probably true. But he is so DULL. He doesn't have any bad habits except a desire to indulge in things that might not be good for him (red wine, nuts and snacks) which he dutifully tries to resist to please his dreary wife. Quirky detectives like Jackson Brodie, ones who sleep with unsuitable...more
I really try to like Ruth Rendell, but after having read "Road Rage" a few years ago, I was somewhat less than impressed. I thought I'd give it another go with "Monster in the Box". I couldn't help but wonder if some of the reviews on the sleeve were a bit, 'over the top', as you'd think she was the next Shakespeare.
This was somewhat better than "Road Rage", but still, as a mystery writer she is average, at best. I honestly can't help but wonder if her fans have ever read other authors. It woul...more
This was somewhat better than "Road Rage", but still, as a mystery writer she is average, at best. I honestly can't help but wonder if her fans have ever read other authors. It woul...more
Okay. what I did like...the narration by Nigel Anthony.
As to the rest, it was quite an enthralling story I suppose but it was based on a ridiculous premise. Wexford, when he was a young bobby on the beat, was involved in the investigation of the murder by strangulation of a woman whose husband became the chief suspect.
Wexford, however, was 100% convinced that the murderer was a muscular squat thug with a birthmark called Eric Targo.....(the man was called Targo not the birthmark) and he was cert...more
As to the rest, it was quite an enthralling story I suppose but it was based on a ridiculous premise. Wexford, when he was a young bobby on the beat, was involved in the investigation of the murder by strangulation of a woman whose husband became the chief suspect.
Wexford, however, was 100% convinced that the murderer was a muscular squat thug with a birthmark called Eric Targo.....(the man was called Targo not the birthmark) and he was cert...more
14 likes · like · see review
I really try to like Ruth Rendell, but after having read "Road Rage" a few years ago, I was somewhat less than impressed. I thought I'd give it another go with "Monster in the Box". I couldn't help but wonder if some of the reviews on the sleeve were a bit, 'over the top', as you'd think she was the next Shakespeare.
This was somewhat better than "Road Rage", but still, as a mystery writer she is average, at best. I honestly can't help but wonder if her fans have ever read other authors. It woul...more
This was somewhat better than "Road Rage", but still, as a mystery writer she is average, at best. I honestly can't help but wonder if her fans have ever read other authors. It woul...more
May 08, 2012
Mary Overton
added it
"Some years before, when his daughter Sylvia had been taking a course in psychotherapeutic counselling, she had taught him about the 'box' as a means of dealing with anxieties.
"'If you've a problem weighing on your mind, Dad, you have to visualize a box - maybe quite small, the size of a matchbox. You open it and put your worry inside - now don't start laughing. It works. Close the box with the worry inside and put it away somewhere, inside a drawer, say.'
"'Why not throw it in the sea?'
"'That's...more
"'If you've a problem weighing on your mind, Dad, you have to visualize a box - maybe quite small, the size of a matchbox. You open it and put your worry inside - now don't start laughing. It works. Close the box with the worry inside and put it away somewhere, inside a drawer, say.'
"'Why not throw it in the sea?'
"'That's...more
I really enjoyed this Inspector Wexford book. This book takes place in a more modern setting with mobile phones, computers and modern subject matter, with a throwback to earlier times in Inspector Wexford's life. The Inspector comes up against someone from his past and remembers incidents back when he was working on his first murder case. As always, his personal life and his work are intertwined.
Rendell accurately portrays the past and the present, although the characters seem to have aged slowe...more
Rendell accurately portrays the past and the present, although the characters seem to have aged slowe...more
How could I not give Ruth Rendell five stars? She is my hero. I told Grace I realized, looking at the back flap of this book, that she's now 80; I'm hoping she lives to be at least 100, because I'm not sure what I'll do when there are No More Wexford Books. (Answer: probably start reading all of them again, which will be OK, because I've already forgotten most of the plots anyway.) (Which is my fault, and due to brain waste--not hers.) Anyway, this is another fabulous Wexford novel; as far as I'...more
Here’s another book in which Ruth Rendell manages to infuse novelistic substance and characterization into a mystery story featuring her long-time protagonist, Inspector Wexford. Wexford reencounters a man that he “knows” committed murder but whom he was never able to find evidence to justify prosecuting. Could this same man be responsible for later and more recent crimes? While the mystery unfolds, Inspector Wexford also recalls his own youthful affairs of the heart, from his first steady relat...more
Rendell, Ruth. THE MONSTER IN THE BOX. (2009). ****. This is Ms. Rendell’s twenty-second book in her Inspector Wexford series. It’s hard to believe that it has been going on for that long. In this episode, she takes us back to Wexford’s beginnings on the force, back to a case that has resurfaced into today’s world. Back as a rookie, Wexford was present at his first homicide case – a woman strangled in her bedroom – when he noticed a short, muscular man wearing a scarf and walking a dog. He stare...more
Rendell's latest has a dreamy feel to it, and almost an elegiac tone for the lost village of the 50s and 60s, even though all was not perfect in that village. This is her most reflective Wexford so far, alternating the recent past with the 50s, and it's almost as if she is at last rounding out Wexford's character or at least filling in some blanks for all her steadfast fans, but not of course like the typical gimmicky prequel. Being the savvy social commentator she is, Rendell does a marvelous j...more
Oct 06, 2009
Philip
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Rendell fans, Wexford fans, Mystery Fans
Recommended to Philip by:
Nobody had to!!!
With the publication of FROM DOON WITH DEATH, author Ruth Rendell and her creation, Reginald Wexford, appeared in bookstores at the same time - 1964 to be exact - she was 34 and he was 52. Rendell has said that had she known she would continue writing about Wexford for so long she'd have made him younger at the start!
In THE MONSTER IN THE BOX she gives us what she has never given us before: a glimpse of the pre-DOON Wexford, in a novel which transports the reader back and forth between Wexford's...more
In THE MONSTER IN THE BOX she gives us what she has never given us before: a glimpse of the pre-DOON Wexford, in a novel which transports the reader back and forth between Wexford's...more
Ruth Rendell’s latest Inspector Wexford novel is another polished performance by a practiced artist. Monster in the Box, as is often the case with Rendell, is a tale about a character so repellent and unsympathetic that he never gains the reader’s understanding or tolerance.
When Wexford was a young cop just starting out, he suspected – no, knew -- that Eric Targo was guilty of a handful of random murders. But he had no evidence and kept his suspicions to himself. Now, decades later, Targo retur...more
When Wexford was a young cop just starting out, he suspected – no, knew -- that Eric Targo was guilty of a handful of random murders. But he had no evidence and kept his suspicions to himself. Now, decades later, Targo retur...more
Well, as usual, a Rendell book is an easy, engaging, at times compelling digest, with a diverse cast of characters, some humor, some pathos, and some quirky red herrings plus secrets/surprises. The problem is, other than the interesting and oftentimes touching insights into Wexford's past (though none, really, very surprising, after so many other books about him) I kept having the feeling throughout that I'd been there, done that. Most of the commentary on modern society, the UK's immigrant situ...more
Disappointing. Perhaps it was because it was an audiobook. The narrator overdid things with his rolled R's and over-the-top delivery.
This is not the greatest Rendell effort, silly contrived plot for starters. I sympathize with her depiction of modern society in decline (fascinating coming from a "progressive"). The gyrations of feminists trying to be sympathetic to other less female-friendly cultures was a major theme in the novel. Yet Rendell proceeded to bash us over the head again and again....more
This is not the greatest Rendell effort, silly contrived plot for starters. I sympathize with her depiction of modern society in decline (fascinating coming from a "progressive"). The gyrations of feminists trying to be sympathetic to other less female-friendly cultures was a major theme in the novel. Yet Rendell proceeded to bash us over the head again and again....more
When you read this book you realize that Ms. Rendell is coming to the end of her wonderful Inspector Wexford series. I for one am sad to see this, but look forward to reading her next book "The Vault" which is recently out. In this book the enigmatic Wexford is being haunted by a ghost from his past. A ghost that he first met when he was just a young copper and newly on the force. A ghost who Wexford is convinced is a serial killer, but one that was never brought to justice. And then lo and beho...more
Sep 12, 2010
Sheila Beaumont
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Shelves:
mysteries-suspense-thrillers,
adult-fiction
One thing I really liked about The Monster in the Box is that the story is interspersed with flashbacks into Inspector Wexford's early years as a policeman, not only his career, but his early romantic involvements and his meeting and courtship of his future wife, Dora. The flashbacks occur as Wexford tells his longtime sidekick, Mike Burden, about his suspicion that a weird, creepy little man named Targo, who has been stalking and taunting him, is a psychopath and has committed a number of murde...more
This book was a big dissapointment. Honestly I do not know how anyone can rate this book a 5 star. As a rule I like Ruth Rendell, but not this one. It was a Washington Post best book of 2009. Unbelievable. I think being in several book reading groups will eventually spoil a persons reading just for pleasure because I can't seem to let these kinds of things go. Some of the interaction in this book between a female police officer, a school teacher, and a Muslem family just would never happen the w...more
I would imagine fans of Inspector Wexford would appreciate this book far more than I. It does recount his early romances. Definitely a must-read for the die-hards who have read the previous 21 Wexfords. Rendell is legend in mystery circles and her writing proves the point. This is a classic English procedural but IMHO with some serious plot faults. Avoiding spoilers, I'll just say that far too much of the book proceeds without solid evidence. As for Wexford, who is new to me, I found him singula...more
It has been so long since I read a Ruth Rendell novel, I cannot remember which I read. Recently, I have finished several Barbara Vine mysteries and had fallen under her spell. After reading "The Monster in the Box", I had the surprising sense that I was comparing two different authors!Perhaps it is not fair to do so with this one book. Vine's writing seems to have a more heightened tension throughout, with the constant mental question,"where are we going with this?" Each of her characters seem t...more
2 likes · like · see review
The main concern of this late outing in the Wexford series is nostalgia, or at least contrasts between past and present. Not only Wexford’s Sussex village, but England has changed since the policeman began his career around 40 years ago, and the most significant change for the plot is the presence of Asian, “Moslem” families. Rendell foregrounds the young, female sergeant’s bumbling attempts to be multicultural (“Do call me Hannah”), suggesting that racism is unavoidable. I did enjoy the detecti...more
1 like · like · see review
No one explores criminal motivation quite so well as Ruth Rendell, and this novel is additional proof of her skill.
Chief Inspector Wexford encounters a man out of his past and it releases a chain of memories, including his initial impression Eric Targo was a psychopath responsible for the murder of a woman.
Another man was subsequently charged with that crime but released on appeal. There was no apparent evidence to link Targo, other than Wexford’s gut instinct stemming from exchange of a “sinist...more
Chief Inspector Wexford encounters a man out of his past and it releases a chain of memories, including his initial impression Eric Targo was a psychopath responsible for the murder of a woman.
Another man was subsequently charged with that crime but released on appeal. There was no apparent evidence to link Targo, other than Wexford’s gut instinct stemming from exchange of a “sinist...more
This is only my second Ruth Rendell mystery (The first was 13 STEPS DOWN, which, like this one, I would also rate 5 stars).
She is completely different from all other mystery writers (and I've read a whole slew: from Henning Mankell to Michael Connelly and Carl Hiaasen and Donald Westlake) because the characters are analyzed so skillfully and completely. I read in one of the other goodreads reviews that she is more like a novelist than a mystery writer, and I completely agree. What she does so we...more
She is completely different from all other mystery writers (and I've read a whole slew: from Henning Mankell to Michael Connelly and Carl Hiaasen and Donald Westlake) because the characters are analyzed so skillfully and completely. I read in one of the other goodreads reviews that she is more like a novelist than a mystery writer, and I completely agree. What she does so we...more
Inspector Wexford is a likeable character and by now seems like a friend. Ruth Rendell writes excellent mysteries and gives her characters human feelings. In this book, Wexford reviews with his partner Burden his suspicions of Eric Targo, a man who Wexford believes has done several murders (including Wexford's first murder case), and has never been a suspect. Many years after his first acquaintance with Targo, he comes back into Wexford's life in Kingsmarkham. Wexford believes that Targo kills p...more
Although acknowledging Wexford's fascinating foray back in time, critics expressed mixed opinions about Rendell's latest—perhaps last—Inspector Wexford mystery. The most enthusiastic reviews, adopting a nostalgic tone, reminisced about Wexford's years as a young policeman, his personal growth, and the earlier period's cultural milieu. But more critics felt mixed about Rendell's retelling of Wexford's life 30 years before; others criticized the forced, distracting subplot featuring the Muslim gir...more
This is one of my least favorites of the Wexford series thus far. It seems to have the theme of obsession at its core. Storyline involves Wexford obsessing about his nemesis criminal Targo, who he is sure has committed yet more murders. Since Rendell's book always has more than one storyline, the other one in this involves Wexford's colleague Hannah (who is determined to always be PC) obsessing about a missing young East Indian girl who seems to be missing. There is much questioning of Tamima's...more
This is evidently the last of Ruth Rendell's Wexford series. While I enjoyed them as good solid police procedurals, they've never been one of my favorites. Wexford always seemed old and stodgy, not one to seek much excitement from his work. This book goes back to his youth and shows someone with a little more zest for living. As a rookie policeman, he notices a man outside a murder scene, walking a dog. The man gives Wexford a look which convinces him that he is the killer. As a rookie policeman...more
Detective Chief Inspector Wexford had been haunted by a murderer for over forty years. The murderer walks his dog right up to the scene of the murder. Chief Inspector Wexford knows who is the murderer but there is absolutely no proof. At least four murders can be traced to this person. When the Chief Inspector's gardener is murdered he knows exactly who did it and is determined to solve the case once and for all. Also, a young Moslem girl is missing and there is some thought she is being forced...more
Another entertaining mystery from Ruth Rendell. As with her other books, she weaves the mystery along with a social commentary. In this case, the topic of arranged marriages within the Moslem community.
I still find the PC-ness of some of the characters to be highly annoying, but I suppose it's done to make a point. I personally think that the same effect could be achieved without the in-your-face descriptions of how Hannah and others try to be so open-minded and politically correct, but that may...more
I still find the PC-ness of some of the characters to be highly annoying, but I suppose it's done to make a point. I personally think that the same effect could be achieved without the in-your-face descriptions of how Hannah and others try to be so open-minded and politically correct, but that may...more
What a dissapointment.
I was expecting something great, like to all the sudden be totally rocked, but I never was. The afterward had an appropriate ending which should have been more what the actual ending was like. The main villain had such a dissapointing death. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster, but the main drop, the main climax, was skipped! There was the build up when you climp that steep incline and then all the sudden the ride was over. WTF!? THIS IS A WASTE OF YOUR TIME TO READ.
Her pe...more
I was expecting something great, like to all the sudden be totally rocked, but I never was. The afterward had an appropriate ending which should have been more what the actual ending was like. The main villain had such a dissapointing death. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster, but the main drop, the main climax, was skipped! There was the build up when you climp that steep incline and then all the sudden the ride was over. WTF!? THIS IS A WASTE OF YOUR TIME TO READ.
Her pe...more
Interesting Wexford tale. At age 80, Rendell has not lost her power. In this outing, Wexford confesses to Burden his obsession that an unsuspected man may be a murderer. This obsession dates back to the very beginning of Wexford's career,so as he remembers his contacts with Eric Targo, he is brought back to memories of his early career, his love life, and eventual marriage, and the changes that have taken place in his community in 40 or so years. There is some social criticism, as usual criticiz...more
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Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an acclaimed English crime writer, known for her many psychological thrillers and murder mysteries.
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Mar 07, 2013 05:55pm