The Monster in the Box

The Monster in the Box

first edition (UK)
Author	Ruth Rendell
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Inspector Wexford # 22
Genre	Crime/Mystery novel
Publisher	Hutchinson (UK) Scribner (US) Doubleday (Canada)
Publication date	2009
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	279 pp
ISBN	978-0-091-93149-0
Preceded by	Not in the Flesh
Followed by	The Vault

The Monster in the Box is a novel by British crime-writer Ruth Rendell, published in 2009. The novel is the 22nd in the Inspector Wexford series.^[1]

Plot summary[]

Wexford has long suspected Eric Targo of being a serial killer. Decades later, he finally admits this to DI Mike Burden, his longtime colleague and friend. In an apparently unrelated matter, DS Hannah Goldsmith and Burden's second wife Jenny both approach Wexford with concerns about Tamima, one of Jenny Burden's students.

As a young detective constable he investigated the murder of Elsie Carroll. Wexford suspects that while her husband purported to be at a whist club, he was actually with his mistress when his wife was killed. George Carroll was acquitted of his wife's murder on a technicality, but was still shunned by Kingsmarkham residents; Wexford believes him innocent. In the weeks of and following the investigation into Elsie Carroll's death, Targo, a scarf covering his prominent birthmark, walks his dog past the young Wexford's rooming house to taunt him, or so it appears to Wexford.

By the 1970s Targo has become a prosperous businessman, several times married and divorced, living in the north of England. Targo reappears in Kingsmarkam. Wexford suspects that Targo has murdered the autistic son of a Myringham widow who wishes her son dead so she can marry her longtime partner.

In the book's present Targo reappears again, still with his dogs, without the naevus, but with a private menagerie.

References[]

External links[]

• The Monster in the Box Rendell, Ruth (Book - 2009) - review from Ottawa Public Library/Bibliothèque publique d'Ottawa
• The Monster in the Box: An Inspector Wexford Novel - review of e-book at ReaderStore
• Is this policeman prescient – or paranoid? The Monster in the Box, by Ruth Rendell - review at WordPress.com

This article about a crime novel of the 2000s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by . See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page.

• v
• t