The Ruth Rendell Mysteries

1. Wolf to the Slaughter: Part One

Air Date: 1987-08-02

One evening, someone messes up a love-nest on a side street in a small country town. The carpet is soaked with human blood, but there is no body to be found. Meanwhile, a beautiful, promiscuous woman goes missing - as does the bundle of cash she was carrying. But Wexford and Burden have different theories about the disappearance of the eccentric Anita Margolis.

2. Wolf to the Slaughter: Part Two

Air Date: 1987-09-09

3. Wolf to the Slaughter: Part Three

Air Date: 1987-08-16

4. Wolf to the Slaughter: Part Four

Air Date: 1987-08-23

1. No More Dying Then: Part One

Air Date: 1989-10-22

The Kingsmarkham police investigate the disappearance of John Lawrence, a five-year-old boy.Seven-and-a-half months after he goes missing, mad, taunting letters begin to arrive, and another child, Stella Rivers, vanishes.

2. No More Dying Then: Part Two

Air Date: 1989-10-29

3. No More Dying Then: Part Three

Air Date: 1989-11-05

4. A Sleeping Life: Part One

Air Date: 1989-11-12

Wexford investigates when the dead body of a middle aged woman is found in a hedge - but there are no clues to the woman's identity, let alone any clues that might lead to her killer.

5. A Sleeping Life: Part Two

Air Date: 1989-11-19

6. A Sleeping Life: Part Three

Air Date: 1989-11-26

1. Some Lie and Some Die: Part One

Air Date: 1990-09-30

The Kingsmarkham rock festival is going smoothly until the disfigured body of of a local girl, thought to be living in London, is found in a nearby quarry. Wexford investigates the links between a charismatic singer and a young woman gone to the bad.

2. Some Lie and Some Die: Part Two

Air Date: 1990-10-07

3. Some Lie and Some Die: Part Three

Air Date: 1990-10-14

4. The Best Man to Die: Part One

Air Date: 1990-10-21

Wexford joins forces with the bridegroom when his best man is killed at the stag party. And Charlie Hatton's death is only the first in a string of murders which seem to be about cheating husbands, loose women and gangsters.

5. The Best Man to Die: Part Two

Air Date: 1990-10-28

6. The Best Man to Die: Part Three

Air Date: 1990-11-04

7. An Unkindness of Ravens: Part One

Air Date: 1990-11-11

Rodney Williams disappears and then his body found in the woods. Wexford investigates and finds more than one mystery.

8. An Unkindness of Ravens: Part Two

Air Date: 1990-11-18

9. Put on by Cunning

Air Date: 1990-12-24

When a world-famous flautist is murdered Wexford wonders if his recently returned daughter had anything to do with it. He becomes obsessed with proving that she is an imposter, even getting permission to travel as far afield as the USA and France to do so.

1. A New Lease of Death: Part One

Air Date: 1991-09-29

A local clergyman is anxious to re-open a thirty-year-old murder case, which resulted in Harry Painter being hanged for the axe-murder of an elderly woman. Wexford himself, as a young detective sergeant, helped to convict Painter, and he has to face the possibility that the wrong man was hanged.

2. A New Lease of Death: Part Two

Air Date: 1991-10-06

3. A New Lease of Death: Part Three

Air Date: 1991-10-13

4. Murder Being Once Done: Part One

Air Date: 1991-10-20

Wexford is staying in London with his nephew Howard, a police superintendent, convalescing from over-work and under doctor's orders to drink only water. He is supposed to be resting, but he is bored, and his nephew is dealing with a fascinating murder case. The body of a young woman, Loveday Morgan, was found in Kenbourne Vale Cemetery, strangled with a silk scarf, and the only things in her handbag were a photograph and two telephone numbers. It appears that she had no money and was living under a false name. Wexford, keen to get out and about, is drawn to the case. His unofficial investigation uncovers a story of adoption and parental love.

5. Murder Being Once Done: Part Two

Air Date: 1991-10-27

6. Murder Being Once Done: Part Three

Air Date: 1991-11-03

7. From Doon with Death: Part One

Air Date: 1991-11-10

Margaret Parsons, a fairly ordinary housewife who, with her water board official husband Ron, has recently moved to Kingsmarkham, is found murdered in a field. Mrs. Parsons led an extremely uneventful life, being a lay preacher, but Inspector Wexford is intrigued when he is looking through her belongings and fine a number of expensive antique books all inscribed 'From Doon to Minna'.Who is Doon?

8. From Doon with Death: Part Two

Air Date: 1991-11-17

Although Mr. Parsons is under the impression that he and his wife knew nobody in Kingsmarkham it turns out that Margaret had two school acquaintances in the town, Helen Missal and Fabia Quadrant, who are now both married to very wealthy men. Wexford assumes that one of these men is Doon, and was having an affair with the victim, but appearances can be deceptive

9. Means of Evil: Part One

Air Date: 1991-11-24

Inspector Wexford is confronted with a murder in a vegetarian family and wonders how many kinds of mushrooms there are.

10. Means of Evil: Part Two

Air Date: 1991-12-01

1. The Speaker of Mandarin: Part One

Air Date: 1992-09-27

Wexford is in China on a study tour of historic sites. To his amazement, he has psychic experiences, including a vision of the body of a Chinese nobleman dead for two thousand years. Wexford's tour party is made up of strangers, but he feels tense and claustrophobic among them. Then a young Chinese student drowns during the trip. On his return to England, Wexford is called to a murder scene, and the dead woman, who has been shot, was one of those with him on his Chinese trip. There is no obvious motive, and he decides to investigate all his fellow tourists, finding hidden greed, treachery, theft, and adultery.

2. The Speaker of Mandarin: Part Two

Air Date: 1992-10-04

3. The Speaker of Mandarin: Part Three

Air Date: 1992-10-11

4. The Mouse in the Corner: Part One

Air Date: 1992-10-18

Tom Peterlee, a member of a large family who live in three adjoining cottages, is murdered. Eva, his mother is quite cavalier in reaction to his death in Wexford's opinion and other family members are no more helpful. Heather, his widow, seems dumb with grief and his brother and meek sister-in-law are similarly evasive. Family friend Carol is more forthcoming, providing Heather with an alibi, but Wexford is sure one of the Peterlees is a killer. Burden has problems of his own when his daughter starts dating a married man and a series of ramraids in Kingsmarkham add to Wexford's problems.

5. The Mouse in the Corner: Part Two

Air Date: 1992-10-25

6. An Unwanted Woman: Part One

Air Date: 1992-11-01

Wexford investigates the killing of an elderly woman. Harry and Doreen Betts of Kingsmarkham are suspected of murdering their mother. But did they do it, or have they been framed?

7. An Unwanted Woman: Part Two

Air Date: 1992-11-08

8. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part One

Air Date: 1992-11-15

A Kingsmarkham police sergeant dies, carrying a replica gun he had taken from his young son... Then, one year later, Wexford is called to Tancred House, where Davina Flory and her family lie shot dead in a pool of blood. The only survivor is seventeen-year-old Daisy Flory. There are no other witnesses, and the two possible suspects have vanished into thin air. Then a blackmailer is found dangling from a tree... Wexford slowly uncovers a web of motives, greed, illicit sex, and revenge.

9. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part Two

Air Date: 1992-11-22

10. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part Three

Air Date: 1992-11-29

11. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part Four

Air Date: 1992-12-06

1. A Dark Blue Perfume

Air Date: 1996-01-10

A middle-aged man returns to his home town and meets the woman he was in love with as a teenager thirty years before. Liz and Mark are soon an item again - but the past comes back to haunt them.

2. Simisola: Part One

Air Date: 1996-01-26

At first, this mystery seems to be a missing person case: Wexford's doctor asks for help in finding his daughter, Melanie Akande, a recent college graduate who disappeared after going to her local unemployment office to find a job. The Akandes are an immigrant family from Nigeria, living in a rural area where only a handful of black people live. The woman who handled Melanie's case at the unemployment office, also young and black, is found murdered a few days later. Could the disappearance and the murder be connected? Wexford begins to face up to subtly racist attitudes.

3. Simisola: Part Two

Air Date: 1996-02-02

Wexford visits the victim of another attempted murder in hospital, and notices a pink Volkswagen Beetle in the car park. Later, another attempt is made on her life. The car is traced to the Epson family, who are away, having left their children with a childminder - who turns out to be Melanie Akande. Wexford closes in on the link - Annette Bystock and Zack Nelson.

4. Simisola: Part Three

Air Date: 1996-02-09

5. The Secret House of Death: Part One

Air Date: 1996-03-08

Susan Townsend is a young woman who goes to see her reclusive next-door neighbour and finds him hacked to death. When another body is found on the neighbour's property, Susan gets mixed up in a tale of mayhem and murder, with the killer adding her to his list of future victims.

6. The Secret House of Death: Part Two

Air Date: 1996-03-15

Part two of two. Susan Townsend finds herself in danger as details of the double killing begin to emerge.

7. A Case Of Coincidence: Part One

Air Date: 1996-03-22

The action begins in the year 1954, when a woman's body is found in the fen-land of Norfolk, and a murder investigation gets under way. In the end, Detective Inspectors Masters and Moore find themselves dealing with the deaths of five women, all apparently by the hand of the same murderer. A young man becomes their principal suspect - but is he really a serial killer?

8. A Case Of Coincidence: Part Two

Air Date: 1996-03-29

Part two of two. Eddie Brannel's protests of innocence urge Masters to go against orders, and as a consequence he learns the true identity of the killer.

1. Harm Done

Air Date: 2000-10-11

Wexford copes with two abductions of teen-aged girls, the disappearance of a 3 year old from her bedroom, and the return of a paroled pedophile to the town.