A Sleeping Life (book)

Ruth Rendel A Sleeping Life (1978) A Wexford mystery. Well-written, but a bit light on the police procedures (as Rendell herself has admitted.) Wexford is more of a private eye than an inspector. Murdered woman turns out to have led a double life as male author of quasi-historical novels based on Elizabethan plays. Female secretary, in love with male persona, discovers the role playing, and kills woman in a fit of confused shock and rage. Wexford's elder daughter is going through a bad patch in her marriage, and her comment about women's success requiring eonism puts Wexford on the right track. Well-plotted; but Wexford's private life seems grafted on, and the link with murder plot seems a little too pat. The TV show based on this novel had a more consistent p.o.v. I think a lot of this kind of fiction works better on TV or film; these media can tell the story faster, and the visuals can create atmosphere and character more completely. **1/2 (1998)