A bit cringe-worthy, especially dealing with the inspector's logic about the murder's motive, mental illness and homosexuality, but not surprising for a crime novel from its era. The book also is more rigidly conservayive in its notions about women, odd considering the author is a woman. Otherwise, not a bad story. ( )

The first Inspector Wexford mystery. It was enjoyable but I guessed the outcome and some of it was a little dated. That said I will continue with the series ( )

Wexford Begins
Review of the Arrow Books 50th Anniversary Kindle* eBook edition (2014), with a Foreword by Ian Rankin and an Afterword by Ruth Rendell, of the original John Long Ltd. hardcover (1964)

From long experience Burden knew that whatever may happen in detective fiction, coincidence is more common than conspiracy in real life.

I got into the habit of binge reading or re-reading classic mystery authors during the pandemic and I now find it to be a continuing habit. I only ever read a few of Ruth Rendell's (aka Barbara Vine's) books at the time they were first published, but I remember the Inspector Wexford TV series fondly and thought that I'd start a Rendell binge for 2023.

As Rendell explains in her Afterword, From Doon with Death was originally written as a one-off standalone. simply as a challenge to see if she could write a whodunnit style of mystery. The character of Chief Inspector Wexford here is somewhat colder than the character in the later books and the TV series. The home life is completely absent and the character is not given to quoting Shakespeare or other classics. He even seems to be a bit contemptuous of the Victorian poetry books that feature in the plot. Faithful assistant Detective Inspector Mike Burden is already quite set in his ways.

See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Fromdoonwithdeath.jpg
Cover image for the original John Long Ltd. (UK) hardcover edition from 1964. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

From Doon with Death (the origin of the 'Doon' nickname is never explained in the book as far as I noticed) was quite a clever mystery with a radical (for its time) twist in its reveal ending. I thought that there was a fair number of clues for the reader which allowed you to make the leap to the solution somewhat ahead of Wexford and Burden. I always say that a little flattery of the reader by an author is a surefire way to gain a readership. Rendell went on to a long and prestigious career after this first outing.

Trivia and Links
* The Kindle editions of this book appear to be completely muddled on GR, so I've used the 50th Anniversary paperback as a proxy.

From Doon with Death was adapted for the Ruth Rendell / Inspector Wexford Mysteries TV series (1987-2000) as Series 5 Episodes 7 & 8 in 1991 with actor George Baker (who also wrote the adaptation) as Chief Inspector Wexford. You can watch the entire 2 episodes on YouTube here. ( )

From what I can tell, this is not only the first book in Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series, but also her first published novel.

Although it lacks the polish of later volumes in the series, and Wexford especially hasn't yet assumed final form, it is a very capable first outing. The time and place and characters are generally well drawn, and the plot engaging (even though the outcome was obvious to me fairly early on).

It will be interesting to see Rendell's style develop as I continue with the series as part of a group read. ( )

Overall, this is a short novel so it seems fine that it was not very good; more or less a throw-away read. I do not see why it is necessary to start reading Wexford with this one, if one is inclined to read the Wexford series. I cannot recommend this one to anyone, its not really of any interest, and the writing style itself is nothing special. ( )