Author | Ruth Rendell |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Series | Inspector Wexford #12 |
Genre | Crime, Mystery novel |
Publisher | Hutchinson (UK) Pantheon Books (US) |
Publication date | 7 February 1983 |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Pages | 224 pp |
ISBN | 0-09-151060-0 |
OCLC | 9517069 |
Preceded by | Put on By Cunning |
Followed by | An Unkindness of Ravens |
The Speaker of Mandarin is a detective novel by British crime writer Ruth Rendell, first published in 1983. It is the 12th novel in her popular Inspector Wexford series. The plot follows the popular Kingsmarkham (a fictional market town in the county of Sussex) policeman as he returns from a holiday to China and investigates the death of another tourist.
While holidaying in China, Inspector Reginald Wexford was haunted by a couple of mysterious occurrences, namely an old woman with bound feet who appeared to be following him from one city to another, and a man's drowning. On returning home he's tasked with investigating the murder of a tourist and realises that this death relates to his experiences abroad.
The reviewer for Kirkus Reviews said of the book that it was: "Less tight and polished than Death Notes , with a ho-hum fadeout — but a disarming, fairly irresistible blend of mini-puzzles, solid detection, splendid travel writing, and Wexford charm." [1]
"The Passing Tramp", a pseudonymous blogger who's written and contributed to several publications on the subject of mystery fiction (including Masters of the "Humdrum" Mystery: Cecil John Charles Street, Freeman Wills Crofts, Alfred Walter Stewart and the British Detective Novel, [2] under the name Curtis Evans), observed the relationship of Rendell's plot with old English tales of supernatural menace (remarking that she wrote the introduction to a book of M. R. James ghost stories). It also contains the drowning of a boat passenger, an element reminiscent of "certain classic Thirties [sic] mysteries by Agatha Christie." [3]
The review mentions the dated caricaturing of a Chinese tour guide near the start of the novel ("He would have given a good deal to have been rid of baby-faced, pink-cheeked, slant-eyed Mr. Sung," writes Rendell of Wexford on the second page"), but mentions that these appear in "just a scant few pages where this occurs, right at the beginning, and it could easily be edited by modern publishers; [and] in truth all of the Chinese characters in the story are window dressing." The review goes on to mention Rendell's East Asian heritage.
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries.
George Morris Baker, MBE was an English actor and writer. He was best known for portraying Tiberius in I, Claudius, and Inspector Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries.
Cecil John Charles Street, who was known to his colleagues, family and friends as John Street, began his military career as an artillery officer in the British Army. During the course of World War I, he became a propagandist for MI7, in which role he held the rank of Major. After the armistice, he alternated between Dublin and London during the Irish War of Independence as Information Officer for Dublin Castle, working closely with Lionel Curtis. He later earned his living as a prolific writer of detective novels.
The Ruth Rendell Mysteries is a British television crime drama series, produced by TVS and later by its successor Meridian Broadcasting, in association with Blue Heaven Productions, for broadcast on the ITV network. Twelve series were broadcast on ITV between 2 August 1987 and 11 October 2000. Created by renowned author Ruth Rendell, the first six series focused entirely on her main literary character, Chief Inspector Reg Wexford, played by George Baker. Repeat airings of these series changed the programme's title to The Inspector Wexford Mysteries. However, later series shifted focus to other short stories previously written by Rendell, with Wexford featuring in only three further stories, in 1996, 1998 and 2000. When broadcast, these three stories were broadcast under the title Inspector Wexford.
From Doon with Death was the debut novel of British writer Ruth Rendell, first published in 1964. The story was later made into a movie in 1988. The novel introduced her popular recurring character Inspector Wexford, who went on to feature in 24 of her novels.
Chief Inspector Reginald "Reg" Wexford is a recurring character in a series of detective novels by English crime writer Ruth Rendell. He made his first appearance in the author's 1964 debut From Doon With Death, and has since been the protagonist of 23 more novels. In The Ruth Rendell Mysteries he was played by George Baker.
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The Vault is a novel by British crime-writer Ruth Rendell, published in 2011. The novel is the 23rd in the Inspector Wexford series. It is a sequel to her previous standalone novel A Sight For Sore Eyes. The novel is the first sequel Rendell has written, and the first to feature Wexford in retirement.
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In Face of the Verdict is a 1936 detective novel by John Rhode, the pen name of the British writer Cecil Street. It is the twenty fourth in his long-running series of novels featuring Lancelot Priestley, a Golden Age armchair detective. Unusually in the series Priestley takes a more active role in the investigation himself, rather than solving it from a detached distance. It was not published in the United States until 1940, by Dodd Mead, with the slightly altered title of In the Face of the Verdict.
Death on the Way is a 1932 detective novel by the Irish writer Freeman Wills Crofts. It is the ninth in his series of novels featuring Inspector French, a prominent figure of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. It was published in the United States the same year by Harper under the alternative title Double Death.