Author:Ruth Rendell
The twenty-first book to feature the classic crime-solving detective, Chief Inspector Wexford.
Searching for truffles in a wood, a man and his dog unearth something slightly less savoury - a human hand.
The corpse, as Chief Inspector Wexford is informed later, has lain buried for ten years or so, wrapped in a purple cotton sheet. The post mortem can not reveal the precise cause of death. The only clue to solving this mysterious murder is a crack in one of the dead man's ribs.
Wexford knows it will be a difficult job to identify the dead body. Although it covers a relatively short period of time, the police computer stores a long list of missing persons. People disappear at an alarming rate - hundreds each day.
And then, only about twenty yards away from the woodland burial site, in the cellar of a disused cottage, another body is found.
The detection skills of Wexford, Burden and the other investigating officers of the Kingsmarkham Police Force are tested to the utmost to discover whether the murders are connected and to track down whoever is responsible.
Rendell's genius with the whodunnit form works to make everything doubly vital. Without being remotely didactic, she is the pre-eminent thematic novelist of her day . . . Jane Austen would have approved of Rendell's cliché-dissecting wit . . . It's impossible to imagine her writing anything devoid of import. She is one of the rare breed that make you feel privileged to be around at the same time as they are. She doles out death so that we might feel more alive
—— New StatesmanThe queen of the whodunnit returns
—— WordRuth Rendell's books are not only whodunits but whydunits, uncovering the motive roots of murder
—— Mail on SundaySuperb ... The suspense persists until the book's final sentences
—— Publishers WeeklyGripping and memorable
—— Sunday TimesRendell never fails to come up trumps
—— Irish TimesCompulsively readable
—— ScotsmanWexford is as solid and reliable as ever
—— Birmingham PostAs ever, Rendell writes both literately and perceptively about her characters and the world they live in
—— SpectatorProbably the greatest living crime writer in the world
—— Ian RankinTony Black is my favourite British crime writer and Gus Dury the genre's most interesting protagonist. Like his previous books, Loss has the power, style and street swagger that makes most of his contemporaries a little bland by comparison.
—— Irvine WelshMost of the fiction books about Edinburgh are geared for the tourist but this is actually geared for the punter ... It really evokes the place ... In Gus Dury you have a very Edinburgh character. If Trainspotting's Begbie's younger brother had gone to university and become a journalist he might have been something like Gus Dury.
—— Irvine Welsh
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