Ruth Rendell's new detective novel Put on by Cunning [is very pleasurable to read]. She is England's premier detective-thriller writer…. She excels in both fields, although personally I think her thrillers have individual standing that her highly accomplished detective fiction lacks.

Chief Inspector Wexford, Miss Rendell's familiar detective, is drawn into a case of accidental death when aged widower, Sir Manuel Camargue, a great flautist, dies ostensibly from falling into his pond one snowy night shortly before he is to marry a girl 50 years his junior. Foul play is not suspected by anyone except the bereaved fiancée. However, Wexford begins to think that the flautist's long estranged daughter might be other than what she seems and finds her repellently attractive. His superiors think he is wrong-headed and obsessive but Wexford bloodhounds his way out to California in the quest for truth. There is a marvellous surprise twist...