I've read several Ruth Rendell books, expecting each time to discover why they're so popular. I just don't get it. The plots depend on coincidence after coincidence and the prose is clunky. And Wexford, now retired, gets through every door as he assists in this investigation, even though he no longer has Police ID. Really? At best, a holiday read. ( )

Wexford Retired & Losing Count of Wexford’s Laws
Review of the Doubleday Canada Kindle eBook edition (September 13, 2011) of the original Hutchinson (UK) hardcover (August 1, 2011).

Wexford thought of Auden’s poem, the one called ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’, about life going quietly on regardless of terrible happenings. ‘The torturer’s horse,’ he remembered, ‘scratches its innocent behind on a tree.’

Chief Inspector Wexford has finally retired and is at loose ends until he is called upon to be a consultant on a mysterious case where several aged skeletons from decades before are found in the bottom of a vault under a manhole cover in a back patio of a house. The house has had several owners over the years and the manhole had been forgotten and covered up with a large planter. The current owner's renovation plans bring the skeletons to light.

The seemingly impossible to solve cold case is solved of course by the dogged investigations of the retired Wexford. Along the way he is also dealing with the issue of a physical attack on one of his daughters. I thought this was a strong entry for the series as it approaches its conclusion.

The Vault continues my 2023/24 binge read / re-read of Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series and this is the 23rd out of a total 24 books. I’m going to hold off on reading the 24th & final book until I have sourced Wexfords #15 to #18 which I had to skip over. For some reason no Kindle editions exist for those books and due to the current ransomware cyberattack on the Toronto Public Library online system it is impossible to source library copies in Toronto.

See cover at https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/...
Cover image for the original Scribner (US) hardcover edition from 2011. Image sourced from Goodreads..

Wexford's Laws
There was a profusion of Wexford’s Laws in this book, so many that it seems Wexford (or author Rendell) have lost count. These are quirky observations or opinions made by the Chief Inspector. Some statements are made which seem to be unnumbered Laws.

’It’s one of my laws: half the people in the world prefer showers and the other half baths.’

Some women are very much affected, Wexford thought, by whether they think they are looking good or are dissatisfied with their appearance or are having, for instance, a ‘bad hair day’, while men are influenced by the state of their car – he thought of that Edsel – or a bad back or a cold coming on.

Children of any age never take advice from their parents. It was a rule of life and perhaps might stand as Wexford’s fifteenth law or something like that.

Perhaps it was this story which prompted his decision to go by car. That and because he was a man and choosing a car was what men almost always did. Women might not or might choose a taxi if they could afford it. Could that be another of Wexford’s laws, must be the seventeenth or eighteenth by now?

Trivia and no Link
The Vault 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. ( )

Had to read through this a couple to times to catch all the dropped hints - and they were clever. She doesn't miss a word. Masterfully done. ( )

Normally when I get into a new series, I start from the beginning. This time I didn't, however, because I began Ruth Rendell with a stand-alone novel, [b:A Sight for Sore Eyes|83410|A Sight for Sore Eyes|Ruth Rendell|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1341035200s/83410.jpg|1224932]. I knew ahead of time that [b:The Vault|9785183|The Vault (Inspector Wexford, #23)|Ruth Rendell|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328411256s/9785183.jpg|14675036] was a follow-up ahead of time, so I planned accordingly.

This novel is good, but ironically it is not a stand-alone (inasmuch as any of a series can be-- most of them can, for when you read each volume in order you gain insights that would otherwise be missed to no real detriment if the author is careful). Really, I can imagine that [b:The Vault|9785183|The Vault (Inspector Wexford, #23)|Ruth Rendell|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328411256s/9785183.jpg|14675036] would really through people for a loop if they hadn't read [b:A Sight for Sore Eyes|83410|A Sight for Sore Eyes|Ruth Rendell|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1341035200s/83410.jpg|1224932]. Most of the novel involves Detective Wexford figuring out what happened in latter book. Delightful for me as I had just put that book down.

So, no five-stars for this one, as it really was incomplete as far as that goes. In all honesty, as much as I enjoyed it, I'd give it 3.5 if GRs allowed me, but I won't lose sleep. Now, off to read [b:To Doon with Death|1187673|Wexford Omnibus (First) From Doon with Death / New Lease of Death / Best Man to Die|Ruth Rendell|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355320774s/1187673.jpg|1175661] before my summer completely runs out on me. ( )

Ivanoff, Elena