Some Lie and Some Die

Mike Burden tries. As Some Lie and Some Die opens, he's the single parent of two teenagers, not quite ready to admit that they're becoming self-sufficient while cringing at their taste in music. The latter part plays into Ruth Rendell's eighth Inspector Wexford mystery. John Burden's favorite singer, ZenoVedast is the headline act at a music festival just outside Kingsmarkam and when two attendees who'd snuck off for a bit of privacy stumble across a woman's body, Wexford finds himself wondering about the odd relationship among Zeno, the singer's manager, and the manager's wife. Rendell includes her usual twist ending and psychological motive, but as her books become a bit more modern, so do the motives. She also includes her usual middle-class scorn for working-class people, but it's a bit muted here compared to the early books.