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In a career lasting more than 40 years, Ruth Rendell has shown how flexible the genre can be. Her scope stretches from the domestic warmth of the Inspector Wexford series to sinister standalone novels as chilly as anything by Patricia Highsmith. As Barbara Vine, she has also written substantial novels that explore the consequences of past crimes.

The Wexford novels are set in Kingsmarkham, a fictional country town in South East England, and follow the traditional form of the detective story, although there is nearly always a sub-plot dealing with an issue of urgent contemporary concern. They are popular and have been successfully televised, with George Baker as Reg Wexford.

Rendell's other novels are more original and less comfortable. They deal not with detection but with the progress of a crime in the making, tracking the first tiny mischance that grows through coincidence, resentment and misunderstanding into violence. All her characters are more or less dysfunctional. They include many lonely, unattractive women falling for the blandishments of charming rogues. She is far too realistic to make all her women victims; their pathetic outer selves often conceal rage and strength.

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The novels she writes as Barbara Vine have more warmth but are still not remotely comfortable. A Fatal Inversion deals with a group of selfish young graduates lounging away the summer in a huge house and allowing disaster to build around them. The Brimstone Wedding describes a friendship between an elderly widow and the most sensitive of her carers, but develops into an examination of anguish, guilt and horror. Psychologically acute and extremely disturbing, Ruth Rendell's work is outstanding.

One to read: The Brimstone Wedding, as Barbara Vine (1995)

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