Product Description

Two young girls disappear then return home unharmed some days later. Chief Inspector Wexford is concerned about a paedophile who has recently been released back into the community but he cannot foresee the series of serious crimes waiting to happen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26804 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
With Harm Done, Rendell has added a remarkable strand of acute social commentary to a book that still functions as an utterly compelling piece of detective fiction. With the controversial subject of paedophilia, she takes the mainstay of her work--problems of modern life--to a level of passion and commitment that gives the book a truly powerful underpinning.

Back in the familiar Sussex town of Kingsmarkham, Rendell's dogged sleuth Wexford is investigating the strange abductions of two young girls: Rachel, a bright middle-class student, and Lizzie, a mentally disabled 16-year-old living with her unsympathetic parents on a grim council estate. When both girls return home, apparently unharmed, Wexford is faced with a curious mystery: what really happened to them? As Wexford begins to uncover the disturbing truth, the dark psychological world that Rendell is so adroit at exploring suddenly comes into focus. And her gift for sharp but concise characterisation remains untouchable as in the case of a reluctant witness: " ''We don't talk about that sort of thing'. She very nearly but not quite tossed her head." --Barry Forshaw

From the Publisher
Following the huge success of Road Rage, Chief Inspector Wexford returns in this compelling new novel by bestselling author Ruth Rendell.

About the Author
Ruth Rendell has won many awards for her writing, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with A Demon in My View, a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986, the 1990 Sunday Times Literary award, and the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.

Customer Reviews

The best Wexford yet
I usually prefer Rendell`s non-Wexford books as they are more psychological and thought-provoking, but this book is very thought-provoking too. This is mostly due to the sub-plots (paedophile riots and wife-beating are included), but also to the fact that several storylines are inter-twined, which keeps you guessing right to the end.

Rendell seems to improve with age.

There's no 'Harm Done' in Rendell's latest
In her latest Inspector Wexford mystery, Ruth Rendell adds another notch to her string of mystery "wins"! While it may (or may not) be her best Wexford installment, her latest "Harm Done" certainly is one of my favorites. The author--ever so aware of current issues--does not shy away from yet another socially significant and controversial issue. In fact, she tackles more than one in this thriller.

For starters, a pedophile is released from prison to live in one of the council

houses in Kingsmarkham. Naturally, the community is literally up in arms. And, more to the point, this novel addresses spouse and child abuse in its various forms, and the readers cannot escape this thematic approach to another of our societal aberrations. Along the way, a policeman is killed by a mob protesting the pedophile's presence, and, eventually enough, there is a murder for Wexford to solve.

The inspector is not without his trusty assistant Mike Burden, and plod they do to solve the case, as much by intuition as by logic and cold facts. Wexford has made a reputation for being able to "sense" the solution in the previous Rendell books. Kingsmarkham, too, has become a regular community in literary geography. The book begins with the disappearance of a teen aged girl, who, miraculously re-appears three days later; in one week, another teenager disappears, and then re-appears. The third person to go missing, next, however, is a three-year old child and the community becomes aflame with violence, as they lay the crime to the pedophile. Mob action follows and in their "reactions," the policeman is killed by a firebomb.

Rendell's penchant for social issues makes her works worth reading anyway; if nothing else they raise a sense of social consciousness and awareness. In "Harm Done," she takes us from one set of family suffering from abuse to another, but not in the sense that it's overkill (pun intended). There is a feeling of disquietude, even depression, as she lays bare the abuse. This is not a book that will fill the reader with gaiety and humor; nor should it be. She is serious about her subject, and it's a subject that her readers, themselves, should be serious about. She also makes a stab irresponsibility of the tabloid press!

Thus, the novel progresses and subsequently ends. And another chapter in the Wexford family has been unveiled. The inspector is a deeply fair man, one who firmly and fully believes in justice and it is his determination to uphold justice that makes us appreciate him so.

Rendell, who also writes under the name of Barbara Vine, has been labeled the "Queen of Crime," as well as having been awarded a number of prizes for her novels. Her works are thought-provoking and far from simple. One cannot read her without being affected in some positive way. It is a pity that the BBC's "Ruth Rendell Mysteries" do not play in America, as most of her Wexford mysteries have been filmed--and fortunately remain true to her books. Her contribution to the genre is far-reaching. "Harm Done" is not to be missed.

A brilliant introduction to Rendell!
I think that this is one of the best Rendell novels I've read, and I would recommend this to anyone who has not yet read her.

The sub-plots and the themes running through it are sensitively handled, and her narration skill is, as always, suspenseful yet subtle. The suspense seems to unfold slowly and you think that 'this is a strange case', then a quarter of the way through and you're hooked.

Rendell works like that, very strong on eccentric minds and subtle plots, and thought-provoking long after you've finished reading.