Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    No Man's Nightingale: An Inspector Wexford Novel
    No Man's Nightingale: An Inspector Wexford Novel
    No Man's Nightingale: An Inspector Wexford Novel
    Audiobook8 hours

    No Man's Nightingale: An Inspector Wexford Novel

    Written by Ruth Rendell

    Narrated by Nigel Anthony

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    INCLUDES AN EXCERPT OF RENDELL’S FINAL NOVEL, DARK CORNERS

    From “one of the most remarkable novelists of her generation” (People) a “refined, probing, and intelligent” (USA TODAY) mystery in the masterful Inspector Wexford series…more enthralling than ever after fifty years.

    A female vicar named Sarah Hussein is discovered strangled in her Kingsmarkham vicarage. A single mother to a teenage girl, Hussein was working in a male-dominated profession. Moreover, she was of mixed race and wanted to modernize the church. Could racism or sexism have played a factor in her murder?

    Maxine, the gossipy cleaning woman who discovered the body, happens to also be in the employ of retired Chief Inspector Wexford and his wife. Wexford is intrigued by the unusual circumstances of the murder, and when he is invited by his old deputy to tag along with the investigators, he leaps at the chance.

    As Wexford searches the Vicar’s house, he sees a book on her bedside table. Inside the book is a letter serving as a bookmark. Without thinking much, Wexford puts it into his pocket. Wexford soon realizes he has made a grave error in removing a piece of valuable evidence from the scene without telling anybody. Yet what he finds inside begins to illuminate the murky past of Sarah Hussein. Is there more to her than meets the eye?

    No Man’s Nightingale is Ruth Rendell’s masterful twenty-fourth installment in one of the great crime series of all time, an “absorbing and rewarding” (Seattle Times) mystery that explores issues of sexism, class, and racism. As Stephen King said: “No one surpasses Ruth Rendell.”
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateNov 5, 2013
    ISBN9781442366251
    Author

    Ruth Rendell

    Ruth Rendell (1930–2015) won three Edgar Awards, the highest accolade from Mystery Writers of America, as well as four Gold Daggers and a Diamond Dagger for outstanding contribution to the genre from England’s prestigious Crime Writ­ers’ Association. Her remarkable career spanned a half century, with more than sixty books published. A member of the House of Lords, she was one of the great literary figures of our time.

    Related to No Man's Nightingale

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Guide

      Jan 2, 2022

      Summer Reading Guide
      6 min read

    • Article

      Inside Her Dark Web

      Jan 12, 2022

      Inside Her Dark Web
      11 min read

    • Article

      Descent

      Jun 14, 2022

      People got out in strange ways. No stranger, I suppose, than the ways they got in. One year an American military helicopter flew too low over an Italian ski village, killing two families headed up the lift. A woman at Hillcrest had Italian citizenshi

      22 min read

    • Article

      I'll Be Seeing You

      Mar 1, 2023

      I'll Be Seeing You
      25 min read

    • Article

      The Lost Boy

      Oct 22, 2020

      The Lost Boy
      5 min read

    • Article

      Last Love

      Dec 8, 2023

      Last Love
      13 min read

    • Article

      Camouflage

      Jun 1, 2020

      Camouflage
      9 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      Our Lady Of The Rockies

      Aug 7, 2023

      Our Lady Of The Rockies
      13 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 16, 2021

      Books
      4 min read

    • Article

      Nothing to Declare

      Jun 15, 2019

      All the senior partners were having a laugh about a movie they’d seen. Forty-Five Years. Something, something about the movie taking forty-five years to sit through. The woman McGuinness thought he recognized was in it with them at the far end of the

      24 min read

    • Article

      Drawn to THE MOORS

      Feb 8, 2022

      Drawn to THE MOORS
      11 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Special

      Dec 28, 2023

      The distinctive depth of characterisation shines in this tightly knitted story of therapist Nick and retired solicitor wife Zoe, as they decide to view a deconsecrated Victorian church which is for sale. It’s “even more picturesque than it looked onl

      11 min read

    • Article

      Scenes From A Marriage

      Mar 23, 2022

      Scenes From A Marriage
      6 min read

    • Article

      STEPPING Out

      Mar 4, 2020

      STEPPING Out
      9 min read

    • Article

      That Particular Sunday

      Jul 6, 2023

      That Particular Sunday
      26 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for No Man's Nightingale

    3.5/5

    157 ratings11 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Too many story lines that really made no sense. I finishing it but was bored and not surprised at the end
    • 5/5
      An excellent read great characters and a villain I never saw coming
    • 4/5
      unsurprisingly icky. I quite like the way that Rendell resolves her mysteries, but I do find them rather brutal.
    • 2/5
      After just reading a book of Rendell's short stories which I really enjoyed, this was a supreme disappointment. Boring as can be. I wouldn't have finished except I was hoping it might cure my insomnia. It didn't.
    • 3/5
      Not Randell's best effort, but still worth the read. Interesting to see Wexford in retirement.
    • 2/5
      I think a Inspector Wexford and I are both uneasy with his retirement. Maybe it can grow on both of us. Still a pretty good read. From an author who is a master storyteller.
    • 3/5
      I have to agree with many of the other reviews. This isn't the Wexford I remember in his prime. Maybe it's time to retire the series since Wexford is retired. It was still a nice read, with interesting characters and if you're a Wexford fan you'll want to read it, otherwise start with the older ones when his life was much more exciting. I never did figure out how the title fit into the plotline.
    • 4/5
      I've been reading Ruth Rendell for many years, and her Inspector Wexford books are always enjoyable. Definitely recommmended.
    • 3/5
      Wexford in retirement is not the same Wexford as DCI. I've read the last few books which take up with Wexford in his retirement from the CID. They just don't grab me the same way. Ruth Rendell is an excellent writer, and she has been one of my favourites for many years, both as herself and under her pseudonym Barbara Vine. She has a way of exploring the "off the wall" like no other author out there. But her latest books just don't have the same tension or even the same creepy characters. In this book Wexford is called out of retirement by his pal and former co-worker Burden when a female vicar is found strangled in her home.He's asked to come and observe, but with Wexford being Wexford observation alone is not in his wheelhouse. He gets thoroughtly involved with the vicar and all the people connected to her in some way. He follows his own line of enquiry which is in a totally different direction than Burden's. The idea of the story is a good one and the plotline is tight as I've come to expect from Ms. Rendell, but there wasn't much tension at all during the entire book. Not what I expect from Ms. Rendell at all.
    • 5/5
      Nearly 40 years on since he emerged in FROM DOON WITH DEATH (1964) Reg Wexford, now retired after a lifetime as Chief Inspector Wexford, is happily reading his way through The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Retirement is suiting him better now than it did in THE VAULT where he took up Detective Superintendent Tom Ede's offer of being an unpaid serious crimes adviser. But he still likes to feel needed, doing something important.This time it is former colleague and friend Mike Burden who asks him if he would interested in a bit of unpaid consultancy following the murder of a local vicar.Most of NO MAN'S NIGHTINGALE is written from Wexford's point of view. Wexford finds for example that Burden is running the the investigation differently to the way he would have done. In his opinion Burden has too many conferences and Wexford finds that in his consultancy capacity he is really not able to voice his opinions freely. Nor can he prevent his friend from making some disastrous errors. Because the murder has taken place in the community in which he lives Wexford finds he at times has to tread a very narrow line. For example, as a private person he learns information that he wouldn't come across as a policeman, and he is not sure whether he is still duty bound to report it to the police.I think Rendell has taken great pains to present us with an aging Wexford, whose brain is still very much alive and alert, but no longer quite as agile as it used to be. But his powers of observation and deduction are still strong.So, an aging person myself, that assured my feeling of empathy with Wexford.And what about Rendell, now 83. How is her writing going? Well, I don't think this is her best book, but it still puts her at the forefront of today's writers. Fans will enjoy Wexford's latest outing.
    • 4/5
      When the vicar of St Peter's Church in Kingsmartin is found murdered, there are a lot of suspects. The fact that the vicar was a woman, half Indian, and a single mother had made her unpopular with many both in her congregation and throughout the village. Although Wexford is now retired, he is asked to assist. When the police make an arrest, Wexford is convinced they have the wrong man but he's the only one who thinks the man is innocent.This is, I believe, the 24th Inspector Wexford novel and, in many ways it seemed more cozy mystery a la Miss Marple than police procedural ie savvy oldster not only helps police but solves the mystery despite them. However, in this novel, the oldster doesn't seem as savvy as he has in the past. In fact, for a retired inspector, he seems downright amateurish at times. When, for example, he discovers a letter in a book which could be an important clue, he deliberately sticks it in his pocket rather than turn it over to the police and then promptly forgets about it.Still, this is a Ruth Rendell novel and although Wexford may not be at the top of his form, Rendell has not lost her keen powers of observation of the human condition warts and all. There are plenty of quirky characters and red herrings galore and she manages to keep the identity of the murderer hidden right to the end. The pacing of the story is rather slow, more invigorating stroll than fast train and, like most of Rendell's books, the mystery is more of a mind tease than a gory in-your-face throw'em down and shoot 'em up thriller. But nobody does this better than Rendall and, if this isn't her best novel, it is still a heck of a good read.