Search - Speaker of Mandarin

Chief Inspector Wexford is on a trip to China with a group of British tourists. It's a long, hot tour and most of it is by train. The Inspector prefers hot green tea over cold drinks in the stifling Chinese summer and as the tour progresses, Inspector Wexford begins to see an old Chinese woman with bound feet following him from village to village. Is she real or is she an hallucination? Upon returning home to England, Wexford is called out to the scene of a murder. The victim is one of the tourists from the China trip. Wexford must solve this crime and the mystery of the woman with bound feet. Excellent traditional British mystery.

Vintage Rendell with multiple twists and turns and a tricky ending

The series of mysteries with Inspector Wexford takes a different turn in this book. He is on a tour of China where there are strange happenings with his fellow travelers-one of whom is murdered after they return to England

(From back cover)
Chief Inspector Wexford is in China, visiting ancient tombs and palaces with a group of British tourists. Is he hallucinating, or does a bent old woman with bound feet follow him everywhere?

Back in England, he is called to a nearby village where a wealthy woman has been found with a bullet in her head. Murdered. He identifies her as one of the China tourists, and soon decides to question the other members of the group. When he discovers the secrets they are hiding - greed, treachery, theft, adultery - he is forced to ask not who is innocent but who is least guilty...

"Rendell in top form, applying subtle psychological tints to the familiar mechanics of the police procedural...handsomely sculpted...Rendell proves once again her awesome skills at probing the criminal mind and conscience...handled with great originality." - PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER