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The Ruth Rendell mysteries is a British television series made by TVS and Meridian Television for ITV between 2 August 1987 and 11 October 2000.
1987
One evening, someone messes up a love-nest on a side street in a small country town. The carpet is soaked with human blood, but there is no body to be found. Meanwhile, a beautiful, promiscuous woman goes missing - as does the bundle of cash she was carrying. But Wexford and Burden have different theories about the disappearance of the eccentric Anita Margolis.
1988
Wexford finds he is dealing with a very nasty case when nature-loving Elizabeth Nightingale is murdered on one of her nightly walks through the woods around Myfleet Manor.
Angela Hathall is murdered, but Wexford can find no motive and no suspect. Maybe she picked up a stranger who killed her?The line Wexford follows alienates not just his colleagues, including Mike Burden, but his wife, too.
1989
The Kingsmarkham police investigate the disappearance of John Lawrence, a five-year-old boy.Seven-and-a-half months after he goes missing, mad, taunting letters begin to arrive, and another child, Stella Rivers, vanishes.
Wexford investigates when the dead body of a middle aged woman is found in a hedge - but there are no clues to the woman's identity, let alone any clues that might lead to her killer.
1998
As a teenager, Guy Curran leads a street gang and for three years is the lover of Leonora, whose middle-class background is a world away from his own. Leonora's family disapprove of her boyfriend. As the years pass, they drift apart. Guy becomes a successful business man and Leonora goes to college and then gets her first job. When they meet again, Leonora says there is now someone else in her life, but Guy can't accept this. His obsession deepens and turns into a murderous madness...
Part two. While attending a party with Celeste, Guy argues with Leonora's brother. He then asks Danny to kill him - but when he learns of an impending marriage, Guy realises he has targeted the wrong man.
Part three of three. After losing the fight with William, Guy decides to forget Leonora and make it up to Celeste, but a surprise invitation rekindles his old obsession and leads to tragedy.
A Kingsmarkham bypass is planned which will take congestion and air pollution out of the town but put tarmac and heavy traffic through a stretch of much-loved countryside. Feelings are running high on both sides. An attractive young German tourist has disappeared, and when her decomposing body is found it is not clear whether the crime is part of a conspiracy or sex-related. Wexford is about to become a grandfather and is struggling to cope with family life and to do his job at the same time. Meanwhile, Dora Wexford has joined the anti-bypass campaign. The murder case continues, and the anti-bypass campaign escalates. People begin to be kidnapped, and this is linked to a militant group of environmental extremists. Under pressure on all fronts, Wexford keeps his cool (even when his wife is kidnapped on the day his daughter gives birth) and pursues the law-breakers to the bitter end.
A girl's badly decomposed body is found, and cabdriver Stanley Trotter is suspected of murder.
A psychological tale of two women who share an apartment, one outgoing and irresponsible, the other shy and neurotic. One day, the chemistry between them leads to sinister events
n England, in June 1941, sixteen-year-old Jenny is evacuated from war-torn London to her Aunt Ella's house in rural Hampshire. The elderly Mrs Thorn is preoccupied with thoughts of her son, away fighting the Germans in North Africa, Uncle Daniel is dismal, and Aunt Ella is acting oddly. Then Jenny discovers a secret, with tragic results.
Quiet accountant Martin wins the lottery, but things take a turn for the worse when he meets Francesca, who is not what she seems.
Richard Brazier has a mental block about his abduction as an eight year old and is haunted by what may or may not have happened.
1994
Stephen Whalby is a young man living on the edge of the Moor, where since childhood he has spent most of his time alone. A string of young women, all with fair hair, are killed on the Moor, and suddenly Stephen finds himself the principal police suspect.
1995
Andrew Fielding, a good-looking young teacher, marries Alice Whittaker, a rich woman in her late thirties, more than ten years older than he is. All seems well until Alice introduces Andrew to Nesta Drage, her best friend, who quickly vanishes without trace. Meanwhile, Alice more and more doubts whether Andrew loves her - and if he is just a gold-digger, might he have something to do with Nesta's disappearance? Alice begins a search for Nesta - but Andrew does his best to tie his wife to the house.
Part two of three. Stephen's passion for the moor fuels the detective's suspicions, as his neglected wife is driven into the arms of danger.
Conclusion. A secret hideaway from Stephen's childhood leads to him uncovering the identity of the Master of the Moor.
Part two of a moody whodunit from the pen of Britain's queen of crime fiction, starring Eleanor David as bride-to-be Alice Whittaker, whose marriage plans are thrown into turmoil by the disappearance of a close friend opposed to her impending nuptials. Disregarding assurances that there is nothing to worry about, Alice sets out to investigate - and soon uncovers evidence of foul play lurking just beneath the surface of local life.
Part three. The spinster's suspicions grow when her best friend mysteriously disappears, and as illness takes control she realises her ally was murdered.
Petra Summers is an attractive middle-aged woman with a past - and her past life is beginning to come back to haunt her. When Petra Sunderton's elder brother Piers falls in love with their Spanish cousin Rosario, the consequences are far-reaching.
Continuing the drama about a wealthy widow who still grieves the loss of her brother.Petra is lonely. Will's constant attention is no consolation for the loss of her brother Piers. Then she receives a visit from two strangers claiming to be Piers and cousin Rosario, and her past begins to catch up with her.
1991
A local clergyman is anxious to re-open a thirty-year-old murder case, which resulted in Harry Painter being hanged for the axe-murder of an elderly woman. Wexford himself, as a young detective sergeant, helped to convict Painter, and he has to face the possibility that the wrong man was hanged.
Wexford is staying in London with his nephew Howard, a police superintendent, convalescing from over-work and under doctor's orders to drink only water. He is supposed to be resting, but he is bored, and his nephew is dealing with a fascinating murder case. The body of a young woman, Loveday Morgan, was found in Kenbourne Vale Cemetery, strangled with a silk scarf, and the only things in her handbag were a photograph and two telephone numbers. It appears that she had no money and was living under a false name. Wexford, keen to get out and about, is drawn to the case. His unofficial investigation uncovers a story of adoption and parental love.
Margaret Parsons, a fairly ordinary housewife who, with her water board official husband Ron, has recently moved to Kingsmarkham, is found murdered in a field. Mrs. Parsons led an extremely uneventful life, being a lay preacher, but Inspector Wexford is intrigued when he is looking through her belongings and fine a number of expensive antique books all inscribed 'From Doon to Minna'.Who is Doon?
Although Mr. Parsons is under the impression that he and his wife knew nobody in Kingsmarkham it turns out that Margaret had two school acquaintances in the town, Helen Missal and Fabia Quadrant, who are now both married to very wealthy men. Wexford assumes that one of these men is Doon, and was having an affair with the victim, but appearances can be deceptive
Inspector Wexford is confronted with a murder in a vegetarian family and wonders how many kinds of mushrooms there are.
1990
The Kingsmarkham rock festival is going smoothly until the disfigured body of of a local girl, thought to be living in London, is found in a nearby quarry. Wexford investigates the links between a charismatic singer and a young woman gone to the bad.
Wexford joins forces with the bridegroom when his best man is killed at the stag party. And Charlie Hatton's death is only the first in a string of murders which seem to be about cheating husbands, loose women and gangsters.
Rodney Williams disappears and then his body found in the woods. Wexford investigates and finds more than one mystery.
When a world-famous flautist is murdered Wexford wonders if his recently returned daughter had anything to do with it. He becomes obsessed with proving that she is an imposter, even getting permission to travel as far afield as the USA and France to do so.
1996
A middle-aged man returns to his home town and meets the woman he was in love with as a teenager thirty years before. Liz and Mark are soon an item again - but the past comes back to haunt them.
At first, this mystery seems to be a missing person case: Wexford's doctor asks for help in finding his daughter, Melanie Akande, a recent college graduate who disappeared after going to her local unemployment office to find a job. The Akandes are an immigrant family from Nigeria, living in a rural area where only a handful of black people live. The woman who handled Melanie's case at the unemployment office, also young and black, is found murdered a few days later. Could the disappearance and the murder be connected? Wexford begins to face up to subtly racist attitudes.
Wexford visits the victim of another attempted murder in hospital, and notices a pink Volkswagen Beetle in the car park. Later, another attempt is made on her life. The car is traced to the Epson family, who are away, having left their children with a childminder - who turns out to be Melanie Akande. Wexford closes in on the link - Annette Bystock and Zack Nelson.
Susan Townsend is a young woman who goes to see her reclusive next-door neighbour and finds him hacked to death. When another body is found on the neighbour's property, Susan gets mixed up in a tale of mayhem and murder, with the killer adding her to his list of future victims.
Part two of two. Susan Townsend finds herself in danger as details of the double killing begin to emerge.
The action begins in the year 1954, when a woman's body is found in the fen-land of Norfolk, and a murder investigation gets under way. In the end, Detective Inspectors Masters and Moore find themselves dealing with the deaths of five women, all apparently by the hand of the same murderer. A young man becomes their principal suspect - but is he really a serial killer?
Part two of two. Eddie Brannel's protests of innocence urge Masters to go against orders, and as a consequence he learns the true identity of the killer.
1992
Wexford is in China on a study tour of historic sites. To his amazement, he has psychic experiences, including a vision of the body of a Chinese nobleman dead for two thousand years. Wexford's tour party is made up of strangers, but he feels tense and claustrophobic among them. Then a young Chinese student drowns during the trip. On his return to England, Wexford is called to a murder scene, and the dead woman, who has been shot, was one of those with him on his Chinese trip. There is no obvious motive, and he decides to investigate all his fellow tourists, finding hidden greed, treachery, theft, and adultery.
Tom Peterlee, a member of a large family who live in three adjoining cottages, is murdered. Eva, his mother is quite cavalier in reaction to his death in Wexford's opinion and other family members are no more helpful. Heather, his widow, seems dumb with grief and his brother and meek sister-in-law are similarly evasive. Family friend Carol is more forthcoming, providing Heather with an alibi, but Wexford is sure one of the Peterlees is a killer. Burden has problems of his own when his daughter starts dating a married man and a series of ramraids in Kingsmarkham add to Wexford's problems.
Wexford investigates the killing of an elderly woman. Harry and Doreen Betts of Kingsmarkham are suspected of murdering their mother. But did they do it, or have they been framed?
A Kingsmarkham police sergeant dies, carrying a replica gun he had taken from his young son... Then, one year later, Wexford is called to Tancred House, where Davina Flory and her family lie shot dead in a pool of blood. The only survivor is seventeen-year-old Daisy Flory. There are no other witnesses, and the two possible suspects have vanished into thin air. Then a blackmailer is found dangling from a tree... Wexford slowly uncovers a web of motives, greed, illicit sex, and revenge.
1997
Lisa meets Zoe, who is as much like her as an identical twin, but entirely out of the common rut - and dramatic events ensue which change both their lives.
Nicholas Hawthorne is a young engineer, recently made redundant and looking for a job in the boat-building industry. He has a very realistic nightmare about a woman being murdered. Then, on an unsuccessful dinner date, Nicholas spots Julian Sorensen, the boss of the firm which has laid him off, and the woman with him isn't his wife. Sorensen pays Nicholas's dinner bill. The next day, trying to pay back the money, Nicholas sees a photograph of Sorensen's wife - and she is the woman who was killed in his dream... Nicholas decides to investigate.
Part two of two. Nick's attempted suicide implicates him in Emma's death and Annabel casts light on the mystery.
A boy obsessively collects poisons - and then he tries them out, with deadly results.
May Thrace and June Symonds are sisters, but their lives are very different. While June lives in the lap of luxury, May is struggling. And May becomes convinced that she has been done a great injustice.
Hugh and Cecily Branksome retire to the seaside town where they grew up. There they meet again Arnold Cottle, an old boyfriend of Cecily's. She goes to look for a public seat given to the town by her late father, who was a local alderman, and finds it was destroyed and later replaced by another seat given by a suspected murderer. With Arnold's help, she sets out to investigate the unsolved murder.
2000
Wexford copes with two abductions of teen-aged girls, the disappearance of a 3 year old from her bedroom, and the return of a paroled pedophile to the town.
George Baker
Det. Chief Insp. Reg Wexford
Christopher Ravenscroft
Det. Insp. Burden
Louie Ramsay
Dora Wexford
Diane Keen
Jenny Burden
