A Sleeping Life

A Sleeping Life
	First edition hardcover
Author	Ruth Rendell
Language	English
Series	Inspector Wexford #10
Genre	Crime novel
Publisher	Hutchinson (UK); Doubleday (US)
Publication date	8 May 1978
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
ISBN	0-09-132540-4
OCLC	4068236
Dewey Decimal	823/.9/14
LC Class	PZ4.R4132 Sl 1978b PR6068.E63
Preceded by	Shake Hands Forever
Followed by	Put on By Cunning

Last updated January 15, 2026

A Sleeping Life is a crime-novel by British writer Ruth Rendell, first published in 1978. It features her popular investigator Detective Inspector Wexford, and is the tenth novel in the series.

A Sleeping Life was a finalist for the 1979 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel.^[1] It was one of two Inspector Wexford novels to have been shortlisted for either of the "big two" crime-fiction awards, the Edgar or the CWA Gold Dagger. An Unkindness of Ravens was also nominated in 1986.^[1]

Reception

In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews wrote, "When Rendell writes crime-from-the-criminal-point-of-view, she is gripping and creepy. When she writes straightforward detection starring homely, countryish Inspector Wexford, she is even better".^[2]

References

1 2 "Ruth Rendell". Stop, You're Killing Me!. Archived from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
↑ "A Sleeping Life". Kirkus Reviews . 6 October 1978. Archived from the original on 5 May 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.

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[:0-1] 1 2 "Ruth Rendell". Stop, You're Killing Me!. Archived from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2023.

[2] "A Sleeping Life". Kirkus Reviews . 6 October 1978. Archived from the original on 5 May 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.

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v t e Ruth Rendell
Inspector Wexford novels	From Doon with Death A New Lease of Death Wolf to the Slaughter The Best Man to Die A Guilty Thing Surprised No More Dying Then Murder Being Once Done Some Lie and Some Die Shake Hands Forever A Sleeping Life Put on By Cunning The Speaker of Mandarin An Unkindness of Ravens The Veiled One Kissing the Gunner's Daughter Simisola Road Rage Harm Done The Babes in the Wood End in Tears Not in the Flesh The Monster in the Box The Vault No Man's Nightingale
Stand-alone novels	To Fear a Painted Devil Vanity Dies Hard The Secret House of Death One Across, Two Down The Face of Trespass A Demon in My View A Judgement in Stone Make Death Love Me The Lake of Darkness Master of the Moor The Killing Doll The Tree of Hands Live Flesh Heartstones Talking to Strange Men The Bridesmaid Going Wrong The Crocodile Bird The Keys to the Street A Sight for Sore Eyes Adam and Eve and Pinch Me The Rottweiler Thirteen Steps Down The Thief The Water's Lovely Portobello Tigerlily's Orchids The Saint Zita Society The Girl Next Door Dark Corners
As Barbara Vine	A Dark-Adapted Eye A Fatal Inversion The House of Stairs Gallowglass King Solomon's Carpet Asta's Book No Night is Too Long The Brimstone Wedding The Chimney Sweeper's Boy Grasshopper The Blood Doctor The Minotaur The Birthday Present The Child's Child
Short story collections	The Fallen Curtain Means of Evil The Fever Tree The New Girlfriend The Copper Peacock Blood Lines Piranha to Scurfy A Spot of Folly
TV series	The Ruth Rendell Mysteries The Barbara Vine Mysteries