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Margaret Parsons is a quiet young English housewife. She is found strangled to death in the woods one day and Inspector Wexford is looking into the case. Margaret and her husband lived a very quiet life and really had no friends to speak of. There aren't many clues until Wexford discovers some books in the attic of the Parson's home that are inscriped to Margaret by someone named Doon. Wexford then starts investigating Margaret's past hoping it will lead tom her killer.

This is the first Inspector Wexford novel published in 1964. It's a pretty well straight forward police procedural but you can see the unique style of Rendell's writing starting to come thru. The ending was also a bit of a surprise considering the time in which the book was written. There's also a very insightful afterwards written by Daniel Mallory.

An amusing Memoir by Joe Muto who worked at Fox News.  Mr. Muto gives us a behind the scenes peek at some of Fox News' personalities.  The bulk of the book is devoted to the time he worked for Bill O'Reilly.  He portrays O'Reilly as being a bit mean-spirited and cheap.  However, he does respect his work ethic.  There are quite a few amusing stories in here and some surprises when it comes to some of the personalities.  A very amusing read.  

This book marks the return of John Rebus and it was well worth the wait. Rebus is now retired and working on a cold case squad with other retired officers. He is also hoping to be reinstated to the police force as the retirement age has been raised.
He is contacted by a woman whose daughter disappeared without a trace a few years ago. She informs Rebus that besides her daughter there were a number of other young women who went missing in the vicinity of a certain road, including one who disappeared quite recently. 
Rebus starts his investigation, upsetting his superiors along the way, and also having Inspector Malcom Fox of the Complaint Squad digging into his past.
Rankin has written another great addition to this series. Here's hoping we see much more of Rebus in the future.

When Hadiyyah Upman disappears from London in the company of her mother, Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers is as devastated as the girl's father. They are her close friends as well as neighbours, but since the child is with her mother, nothing can be done. Five months later, Hadiyyah is kidnapped from an open air market in Lucca, Italy, and this triggers an investigation in the full glare of the media spotlight. Barbara's clever manipulation of the worst of London's tabloids forces New Scotland Yard to become involved. But rather than Barbara herself, her superior officer DI Thomas Lynley is assigned to handle a situation made delicate by racial issues, language difficulties, and the determination of an Italian magistrate to arrest and convict someone - anyone - for the crime.

A tremendous addition to the DI Lynley series. The book bounces back and forth between England and Italy but the author does a great job of keeping the story moving. DS Havers is again bending and breaking rules but it is great to see her caring so much for another person. Lynley also seems to be getting over the loss of his wife and returning to his old self. The Italian police officer in the story is a good character and his take on DS Havers is refreshing. I've read other reviews and some people seem to feel that the book is too long but with the excellent writing I felt quite the opposite. Once again the ending is not a feel good one but quite realistic. I can hardly wait to see what awaits Lynley and Havers next. 

Reacher has finally reached Virginia. He's there to see the new CO of his old unit, Major Susan Turner. However, when he arrives he's in for a few surprises. Turner isn't there. She's been arrested. The temporary CO informs Reacher that he has been charged with the murder of a man from sixteen years ago and has been forced back into the service in order to be court marshalled. To make matters worst he's been accused of fathering a child and the child's mother is now seeking some kind of child support from him. Reacher is denying all the charges and is also certain that Turner is innocent also. He then begins to look into these matters and the action begins.

I love this series. I usually don't care for over the top heros but Reacher is an exception. Here we have him fighting two men with his hands behind his back, breaking peoples arms and fingers on airliners and just generally wrecking havoc with anyone that stands in his way. I also like the way he thinks things out and his love for numbers always amuses me. I thought at first that this book would go in another direction in the end but even though it didn't I was still satisfied with the ending. I'm anxiously awaitng the next installment in this series.