Simisola Free Audiobook

by Ruth Rendel
read by Christopher Ravenscroft

Inspector Wexford – Book 16 (1994)

You might think we were dealing with Prime Suspect IV. In racist, high-unemployment Britain, a young, middle-class black woman goes missing, and the last person she seems to have spoken to–an unemployment officer–is found murdered in bed. Unfortunately, the struggle between social commentary and whodunit is so equal–think of two wrestlers, each unable to throw the other–that one soon tires of the sport. What went wrong? Rendell is the finest of the finest, an author who, like le Carre{‚}, often soars above her genre as if using it only to ground her craft. Is the problem the too-conventional nature of her Wexford series, or the too-conventional targets of her social criticism? In fact, the chief target of the author’s criticism is an English law that permits wealthy immigrants to bring into the country servants who are part of their household but who are not legitimate immigrants in their own right–that is, who must stay with their “masters” if they are not to be deported. That these servants are often treated like slaves has not, so far, persuaded the Conservative government to change the law, and this is the source of Chief Inspector Wexford’s (and Rendell’s) quiet disgust. “We’re all racists,” the gentle Wexford says in the early pages, and the novel goes on to prove him right. But all this, of course, is a contrivance, and the story suffers under the burden; it has little force, momentum, or focus. True, Rendell firing on only three cylinders is more impressive than many firing on all four, but this is still a disappointment.

11 hours duration. 10 Cassettes. (32 kbit/s 22050 Hz Fraunhofer CBR Mono)