When my husband decided that he wanted to read Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series, I printed out her bibliography from Wikipedia, figuring that I probably had all, or almost all, of her work already. Turned out I was wrong - there’s only one Inspector Wexford that I don’t have, but there are quite a few stand-alone novels (and Barbara Vine ones) missing from my library. So I was happy to find several missing ones on a recent used bookstore run, including this, from 1965. It depicts life in a middle to upper-middle class village, where one man is discouraged from buying cyanide to kill some wasps and another man soon dies, after being swarmed by the insects. The local physician initially thinks it coincidence and accidental, but the more information he receives from others, the more uncertain he becomes….This being written so early in Ms. Rendell’s career, it is not as compelling a read as her later books, but even at this early date she already knows how to tell a tight story and how to individualize her characters through their histories and current lives. Some of the activities are strange to the modern reader, such as guests settling down quietly to listen to a classical record on the phonograph, but it’s still an entertaining read, though perhaps only for completists. Mildly recommended. ( )

Tamsin and Patrick Selby have an unhappy marriage. Tamsin is a beautiful young woman just on the verge of turning 27. Her husband, who also happens to be her first cousin, is very controlling, down to dictating what kind of clothes his wife should wear (plain in subdued colours), whether she should wear makeup (she shouldn't) and how she is to keep the house (immaculate). They live in a beautiful house in the fictional housing development of Linchester, Nottinghamshire, and Tamsin has invited their neighbours to a get-together she's organized for her birthday. Patrick is rude to her and the guests throughout, and when he gets repeatedly stung by several wasps, no one is much chagrinned by his plight, nor when he is found dead the next day. The local doctor doesn't believe in foul play until some persistent gossiping leads him to investigate a little further to find out if there's any truth to claims that beautiful Tamsin had something to do with Patrick's death. There is an interesting sub-plot having to do with a painting of John the Baptist's head on a bloody platter and it's a good enough story, but none of the characters made much of an impression on me. ( )