Road Rage: (A Wexford Case)

A by-pass is planned in Kingsmarkham, that will destroy its peace and the natural habitat forever. Dora Wexford joins the protest movement, but Wexford must be more circumspect. Trouble is expected. However, before the protestors make their presence felt, the badly decomposed body of a young woman is discovered. Burden believes he knows the identity of the murderer, but Wexford is not convinced. Before the murder inquiry can proceed much further a number of people disappear - including Dora Wexford - leaving the Chief Inspector is both puzzled and bereft. Having also just become a grandfather, he cannot come to terms with the most powerful, familiar passions until the case is resolved.

Nobody has a better ear for the whine of the unloved and underappreciated than Ruth Rendell. Early in this Inspector Wexford adventure, a young woman who was bound and gagged during a robbery demands victim counseling; not long after, families of some people taken hostage quickly cluster themselves into a support group. The titular "road rage" is equally timely and politically correct: protestors have gathered from around the world to stop, by whatever means they can, a new motorway that will cut through some of the woods surrounding Wexford's fictional but endearing village of Kingsmarkham.