Although he did not invent the police-procedural novel, Hillary Waugh, who has died aged 88, defined this sub-genre of the detective story, in which the puzzle of the criminal's identity is sublimated to the unfolding police work. Waugh's 1952 novel Last Seen Wearing is generally considered the finest early example of the police procedural; the British critic Julian Symons included it in his list of the 100 greatest crime novels, on Raymond Chandler's recommendation.

Many recent retirees will understand why Ruth Rendell's familiar protagonist, Reg Wexford, is feeling a bit aimless in the early pages of The Vault.

Devizes people were surprised when actor George Baker and his wife came to live in their midst in 1990. But what surprised them even more was his openness, friendliness and lack of any self-importance or snobbery.

George Baker in an interview about his acting life talks to Dennis Rookard,

Author Ruth Rendell has admitted that her famous creation, Ch Insp Reginald Wexford, is based on her.

RT @RickKleffel: New podcast of my interview with Baroness Ruth Rendell

After talking with Ruth Rendell, I can honestly say that she is the most civilized person who has ever robbed me of sleep.

Crime writer Dreda Say Mitchell talks to Ruth Rendell about "Vault", her 23rd Inspector Wexford novel.

There's been disagreement about Ruth Rendell's The Vault, in which Reg Wexford is called in when four corpses are found in the coal hole of a house used in a previous Rendell novel.

Ruth Rendell is bidding fair to join Defoe and Dickens in creating one of the great criminal cities of literature. Her view of London is a similar murderous topography, less squalid, but with the same tentacles reaching out between rich and poor. The mapping of this novel began over a decade ago with the publication of her A Sight for Sore Eyes, which featured "Orcadia Cottage", a charming old house in St. John's Wood painted by a well-known artist as a backdrop for his portraits of a devoted young couple.

Wexford, a devoted grandfather who sends his very first email here, is the antithesis of the artistic and autistic Teddy Brex, the creepy student protagonist of A Sight for Sore Eyes. The Vault, as a sort-of-sequel, is a bold attempt to combine Rendell's two chosen specialities: the police procedural and the psychological thriller.

Ruth Rendell’s Wexford is now an OAP but, at 81, the author’s own life is far from quiet retirement, finds Jake Kerridge.

Ruth Rendell has probably pulled more surprises on her readers than any other crime writer. But the one she produces with her latest novel is a little unusual even by her standards. Set in the present, The Vault (Hutchinson, £18.99) deals with the discovery of four corpses in the disused coal hole of a Georgian cottage in St John’s Wood. The main investigator is Rendell’s long-running series hero, Chief Inspector Wexford, now retired and living part-time in Hampstead.

But who, pray, is Detective Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford, and where on earth is Kings Markham? These answers will be found on Arts & Entertainment tomorrow night at 10, when the first hour of a three-part dramatization of Ruth Rendell's ''Shake Hands Forever'' is presented on the cable network's new ''Masters of Mystery'' series. (The subsequent episodes will be shown Feb. 12 and 19, in the same Monday-night slot.) ''Surely you Americans have heard of Wexford,'' Miss Rendell said, sounding slightly aghast in a recent telephone conversation from her home in the Suffolk district of England.

"I thought I should retire him but not leave him out of the series all together," says Ms. Rendell, 81. "He's very aware that he's no longer what he was."

Back in the 1970s, I was a trainee hack down in Devon and an avid consumer of crime fiction. I can still remember the jolt of reading Detective Inspector Reg Wexford’s beginnings in From Doon With Death (published in 1964) and being bowled over.

If Inspector Wexford is your choice of detective then head to Romsey in Hampshire where the Ruth Rendell mysteries was filmed. It is a delightful market town which hosts the huge Romsey Agricultural Show each year. But it’s close to Southampton (and its airport) and motorway links. Our online search engine shows you can spent nearly £4m on a house in Romsey but there are others for sale at a more modest price.

Actor known for her role as Dora, the wife of Inspector Wexford in the popular TV series.

This incredible Ruth Rendell Collection is filled with thrilling crime tales, punctuated by fascinatingly complex plotlines. Including the first ten novels in her popular Inspector Wexford series, reissued with new glossy jackets, this set is great as an introduction to the famous author’s work or as a reminder of her talents for those that have read these captivating crime thrillers in the past.

In this Culture Show special, Sue Perkins investigates crime and experiences 'new romance' in an attempt to discover the essential ingredients of a bestselling novel.

Along the way, Sue also meets bestselling authors Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendell, Colin Dexter, Anthony Horowitz and Joanne Harris along with some of the UK's biggest crime, thriller and romance fans to find out what they like best about their favourite authors.

A new Wexford Novel

RUTH RENDELL] and [Barbara Vine] have become household names in Great Britain ("I never use a credit card in stores, and I've gotten mail addressed simply, 'Ruth Rendell, England' "), and her books have won a number of awards. Otto Penzler, founder of the Mysterious Press and the American publisher of her new book, calls her one of "the greatest novelists writing in England today." That he and others often omit the qualifying word "mystery" before novelist indicates the way in which her books have transcended the traditional confines of the genre. Often, Rendell doesn't just write about criminals - she enters their minds, telling about events from the distorted view of the psychopath.

Rendell Returns: To those many fans of TVOntario's Ruth Rendell Mysteries series who responded with abundant outrage to my Februrary review of what I believed was the first of a new season's run of Inspector Wexford crime yarns, I apologize. As it turns out, TVO purchased some of the very first Rendell mysteries, long after they aired elsewhere, and A Guilty Thing Surprised, tonight at 9 on Channel 19, is one of them. News that a British producer is currently preparing a new run of Wexford works for TV confused me.

Character actor who was an ensemble player to the core

Ruth Rendell knows so many ways to tell a story you might count her as three or four writers. Her Inspector Wexford stories are probably her most popular works, especially after a long-running television series based on them. Her other mysteries are a bit more complicated, in that they usually have no fatherly detective to make it all better, and certainly no guarantee that a criminal will be identified or caught. You may get poetic justice, or you may not get even that.

Ruth Rendell knows so many ways to tell a story you might count her as three or four writers. Her Inspector Wexford stories are probably her most popular works, especially after a long-running television series based on them.

Details of the 2010 Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards Season including the shortlists for the Crime Writer’s Association (CWA) Daggers were announced yesterday at Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. A six-week season of documentaries on ITV3 will showcase the CWA shortlisted books and twelve celebrated fictional television detectives will be profiled in a six-part series The People’s Detective.

Popular northern dramatist for TV, theatre and radio, his works guaranteed humour, heart and humanity.

Iris Murdoch's "A Fairly Honourable Defeat" is up against 21 other works, including "The Fire Dwellers" by Margaret Laurence, Len Deighton's "Bomber," ''A Guilty Thing Surprised," by Ruth Rendell, and "A Clubbable Woman," by Reginald Hill.

The 22nd in Ruth Rendell's Inspector Reginald Wexford series, The Monster in the Box rewards loyal readers with a generous trip back to the origins of the Kingsmarkham copper.

Ruth Rendell's son told her of a method for dealing with troubling thoughts: imagine a box into which you can put the disturbing images and shut them safely away. It's a good metaphor for a book about murder. The "box" is the method adopted by Inspector Wexford with an incident that occurred to him as a young policeman.

The axeing of the channels, which featured popular programmes such as Poirot, Inspector Wexford and live football, has led to a storm of protest.

Ruth Rendell has denied reports that she has written her last Inspector Wexford novel, insisting that the veteran investigator is alive and well and ready for more adventures.

After conjuring up countless murder mysteries, Ruth Rendell has written her last ever Inspector Wexford detective novel.

Call it The Wire Effect. Actors who appeared in the acclaimed HBO series The Wire (2002-2008) are spreading over the entertainment universe the way that lavender takes over a garden: quietly but determinedly.

Hutchinson has bought the rights for the twenty-second title in Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series. Paul Sidney bought UK and Commonwealth (exclusive Europe excluding Canada) rights from Charles Walker at United Agents.

Chief Inspector Wexford's twenty-second case, Monster in the Box, has been acquired by Paul Sidey from Charles Walker at United Agents.

"I still, after all these years, love writing and I don't say I write well, but I write as well as I can..."