Bungled Murder
Review of the Seal Kindle eBook edition (2010) of the original Hutchinson (UK) hardcover (October 20, 2005).

'On the face of it, he seems a respectable sort of bloke …'
‘But yet,’ said Wexford, quoting from his favourite play. “I do not like 'but yet'.” What’s wrong with him, Mike?’ - Wexford's favourite play is apparently Shakespeare's 'Antony and Cleopatra' (2002) as he quotes from Act 2 Scene 5.

A 4 star rating is on a relative scale, after my being somewhat disappointed with The Babes in the Wood (2002), the previous book in the Wexford series. This one had an intriguing case and combined it with various social issues such as surrogacy. It also made for a return to favourite Wexford quotes and banter. There are some cringey bits and a rather unbelievable scam which is uncovered towards the end (see the 1-star review linked below about that, but note that review is a spoiler as well).

The story opens with a botched murder attempt that occurred through an induced traffic accident where the intended victim survives but another driver is killed by mistake. Afterwards the intended victim is murdered after all and it takes a while before the two seemingly unrelated events are tied together. Then yet another murder occurs. It takes a considerably amount of time for the investigators to realize that the issue of surrogacy is somehow tied into the killings. Meanwhile, on the Wexford home front, his eldest daughter Sylvia is apparently willing to be a surrogate for her ex-husband and his new wife.

I did note that the cast list on the police side is expanding considerably over the earlier books in the series. Detective Sergeant Hannah Goldsmith and Detective Constable Baljinder 'Bal' Bhattacharya play prominent roles in the investigation and have their own romantic subplot.

End in Tears continues my 2023 binge read / re-read of Ruth Rendell and this is the 20th of the Inspector Wexford series. The Kirkus Review linked below says that it is her 64th book overall. I have had to skip over Wexford #15 to #18 as I haven’t been able to source them yet.

See cover at https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/...
Cover image for the original Hutchinson (UK) hardcover edition from 2005. Image sourced from Goodreads..

Wexford's Laws
Wexford’s Laws do not appear in this book. Wexford’s Law No. 6 appeared in The Babes in the Wood (2002 - Wexford #19) and Wexford’s Law No. 7 will appear in Not in the Flesh (2007 - Wexford #21). Wexford’s Laws are occasional thoughts about quirky observations made by the Chief Inspector for which he assigns a number.

Favourite Quotes

'I once learnt by heart something Bertrand Russell said. Let’s see if I can remember it. “The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it isn’t utterly absurd. Indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”'

‘It’s a funny thing’, said Wexford when they had sat down at a table in the window, ‘that everyone but the Danes call these things Danish pastries.’ ‘What do they call them, then?’ ‘Viennese bread.’

'He’s not your third murderer – sounds like something out of Macbeth, doesn’t it?' Their blank polite faces showed him that they had no idea whether it sounded like something out of Macbeth or not. It was no use lamenting the loss of poetry from the nation’s mindset. It was gone, never, he supposed, to return.

Other Reviews
Review at Just a Whisker Below State of the Art by Kirkus Reviews, July 25, 2006.
And for contrast, here is a very opposing 1 ⭐ star review (with a Spoiler) on Goodreads by Kavita at Sexist crap. Racist crap. Stereotypical clichés crap..

Trivia and no Link
End in Tears was not adapted for television as part of the Ruth Rendell / Inspector Wexford Mysteries TV series (1987-2000) as the novel was published after the series had ended. ( )

The basic mystery here is the murder of two young women. Young Amber is murdered late at night, on her way home from a nightclub in London. Her friend Megan is murdered some days later.

Inspector Wexford is leading the hunt, with several on his team. We are treated to not only the investigation of the case itself but to incidents in the lives of Hannah and Bat as well as Wexford and his family.

The case becomes complex. There are many avenues to investigate, some of which come to have nothing to do with the murders, but which clearly confuse our sleuths - and the reader. Meanwhile, there are the other issues:

Hannah is a beautiful young woman who is a fierce advocate of women's liberation. She is, in this respect, a caricature. To me it felt like she was written almost as a vessel for others' beliefs, which she took for her own. Thus she is righteous and abrupt and forthright in how she states her positions and she is forever angry at those who hold other opinions. I found this characterization of a "modern woman" irritating, because I know that most young women who hold strong views about feminism come by them honestly and feel deeply about them. Hannah, instead, is set up as an actor, one who sometimes jerks back to earlier days, to feelings she has tried to suppress. I liked Hannah but wanted her to be more realistic. I felt that Rendell was imposing her own views of feminism on her, and those views perhaps are a bit dated.

It is difficult to imagine Rendell being the stuffy moralist, given what else she has written, so I may have it wrong. But then there is the matter of the surrogate mother.

Some of the following will be a "spoiler" - perhaps best to read after reading the book:

Wexford's daughter Sylvia, divorced with two children, has agreed to bear a child for her former husband and his new love, to which he is not yet married. The child is his, deliberately conceived for him and his new partner. Sylvia is happy to be carrying out this deed, but her mother and father are less than thrilled. In fact, I found their thoughts and behavior deplorable. Her mother, Dora, tells Sylvia that she will ruin the family forever by having a child and giving it away. Dora thinks about a grandchild she will never see. She cannot accept it. Wexford still loves his daughter and shows her that he does but internally he is torn up by the surrogacy. To both of them it is as if Sylvia is acting immorally.

When Sylvia is in labor - in her own home, caught in a snowstorm - neither Dora nor Wexford choose to be there. Dora can't stand to see the child under these circumstances and Wexford is trying to distance himself from it.

I can't accept this absurd position. How could they both essentially abandon their daughter at this time? What if she had a dangerous delivery? Why wouldn't they be there for her regardless of her decision about the baby? So here, too, I felt an overriding sense of moral indictment by Rendell.

Hannah and Bat, in the meantime, are testing the waters of each other. Bat wants to have a real connection with Hannah, to know her well, before having sex with her. To Hannah all of this seems borne of a previous era and she becomes increasingly impatient, to the point where the relationship goes off the rails. Fortunately, in this case, Rendell allows Bat to see how bizarre his behavior has been, and I do not feel she condemns the more "modern" acceptance of sex earlier in a relationship.

As for the mystery! I am revealing all here, but I did warn you. Finally Wexford determines who wanted Amber dead. Her stepmother. I had such trouble with this because Amber clearly was not all that involved in her own baby's life and had already given over his care to her stepmother. If Amber moved away chances are her stepmother could had worked a deal, even offered to adopt the baby. It seems a far more likely scenario than murder. Of course, sometimes our minds just don't work right.
( )

Not a bad crime novel, but End in Tears, for all its complications, was a flat one. It's the first Ruth Rendell book I've read, chosen simply because it's the one I have.

Teenager Amber Marshalson is found by her father, her head stoved in by a brick. She'd been out with friends. When she didn't return by the wee morning hours, her doting dad walked out looking for her. Her body was only a few yards from home. Investigators soon learn she'd totaled the car her father had given her. A block of masonry dropped from a bridge had crushed a car very similar to hers, killing a passenger. Following closely behind the first car, Amber was unable to stop and backended it. Now, the investigators believe she was the target, not the person who died. Shortly thereafter, a teenage friend disappears, her body ultimately found, her head crushed, apparently with a brick.

A huge team of investigators spread across town to interview family members and friends, as well as friends and acquaintances and co-workers of family and of friends. Stories are shared with police by a couple of citizens who just want to do the right thing. Lots of driving around, lots of verbal sparring, lots of ancillary storylines. In the end, all the secondary plots are resolved happily and the resolution of the case itself has to be explained by the chief inspector in a staff assembly. Nick Charles and Hercule Poirot settle some of their cases with this sort of show 'n' tell, but usually the miscreants are in the audience alongside the cops and we the readers share in the tension and surprises. This one ends in a staff meeting. Boring.

I usually like Ruth Rendell's mysteries quite alot, both the Wexford mysteries and the "psychopath" books. I am a psychiatrist and she "does" psychopaths quite well. However, this book didn't quite satisfy.
I found myself impatiently checking how many pages were left to read. Also, I was very surprised by the large "exposition dump" at the end, where "Wexford explains all" to his underlings. I don't remember Ms. Rendell resorting to this "cheat" before. I am hoping this was a one-time aberration, or maybe it was just me. ( )

At first there was no reason to link the killings. In fact, the first death could easily have been called an accident. When the car driven by Mavis Ambrose is struck by a falling chunk of concrete and she is killed, the police have absolutely no reason to suspect foul play in her death. However, the bludgeoning of gorgeous eighteen-year-old Amber Marshalson that follows several months later is clearly murder.

In the midst of the hottest summer on record, Inspector Wexford is called in to investigate the Marshalson case. He quickly discovers a potential link between Mavis' death and Amber's murder: Amber was driving the car directly behind Mavis' when the piece of concrete crushed it. Whatever other ties both cases might have, Inspector Wexford is certain of one thing: whoever wanted the teenager dead was willing to kill twice.

When a third body is found, the case takes a completely unexpected and quite a darkly disturbing turn. And as Inspector Wexford investigates the case further - the darker such realities become. In fact, the more Inspector Wexford digs into the case - and the closer that he gets to solving it - the more it inevitably leaves him feeling adrift; absolutely lost in a world that is seemingly without morals.

I have always enjoyed reading Ruth Rendell's books and this one was no exception. I have actually read several earlier books from this series many, many years ago. However, while I'm not sure if it is because this is a later mystery in a rather long series or not, I will say that I found the mystery to be remarkably more complex than I was expecting. I had some trouble keeping all the characters straight in my mind, so the mystery became just the slightest bit confusing to me. Despite that, I would still give this book an A! ( )