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.

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.

Cold cases never die: Inspector Wexford revisits one of his earliest crimes and the killer who got away . . . until now.

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

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.

English mystery writer Ruth Rendell has written more than 70 books and insists she would stop if she felt she had lost her touch for the intricate workings of the human psyche.