Simisola

Simisola, the sixteenth Inspector Wexford novel, begins with a missing young Nigerian woman — Melanie Akande, daughter of Wexford's friend Dr. Raymond Akande — and builds into a disturbing investigation involving multiple murdered Black women in the otherwise quiet Sussex town of Kingsmarkham. Rendell uses the case to confront her fictional world with race and the specific violence of racist obsession, giving Wexford a case that challenges both his investigative method and his assumptions about where he lives.

Christopher Ravenscroft narrates with the measured authority the Wexford series demands, capturing both the detective's methodical professionalism and the horror of what the investigation ultimately reveals. At just under eleven hours the audiobook honors one of Rendell's most socially serious Inspector Wexford entries, handling the novel's difficult material with appropriate gravity.