ROAD RAGE

The woods outside of Kingsmarkham were lovely, dark, and deep.  And they were about to vanish forever when the new highway cut through them.  Chief Inspector Wexford hiked there for the last time, he believed, to say a quiet farewell to this special place.  But that achingly beautiful walk would signal instead a chilling change in his life, when a policeman's detached perspective changed into the terrifying fears of a victim...

While Wexford privately despaired about the highway project, local residents and outsiders were organizing a massive protest.  Some of them were desperate enough to kidnap five hostages and threaten to kill them.  One hostage was Wexford's wife, Dora.  Now, combining high technology with a cop's gut instincts, Wexford and his team race to find the kidnappers' whereabouts.  Because someone has crossed from political belief to fanaticism, and as the first body is found, good intentions may become Wexford's personal path to hell.

RUTH RENDELL is the author of Blood Lines (Crown, 1996), Simisola (Crown, 1995), and The Crocodile Bird (Crown, 1994). Her most recent novel is The Keys to the Street (Crown, 1996). She lives in England.