Wolf to the Slaughter (Chief Inspector Wexford Series #3) Book

I can only give this three stars...

The mystery is okay, the interplay of characters, the scattering of clues that an astute reader of mystery should be able to discern, but...

It's the writing. I love Ruth Rendell: the stories, characters, settings, but the way she writes often totally confuses me. An example is when Wexford, the chief inspector, is questioning someone. He will talk; she will talk; it goes back and forth rather nicely, then...

She talks, but in the same paragraph you read, 'Wexford paced,' or 'Wexford set down his mug.' It seems to me that Wexford is talking? But he isn't. Descriptions of him are interspersed in the same paragraph where SHE - the suspect - is talking, and talking, and goes on talking. I don't get why it's written this way. This happens throughout the book and I have to re-read, go back, and once or twice I actually went through the dialogue thinking, okay this is Her, Him, Her, Him - and him again? No, it's her...

It's a stylistic thing, perhaps, and yet being an American reader of mostly American-written books, it tends to flummox me a bit. There's also a tremendous amount of slang, or narration which an English-speaking person might get, but an American has to stop and think about. That's not really such a problem, and I've also learned to keep a dictionary at hand when I read Rendell. I usually learn a few new words every time I read one of her novels. She's not so bad as PD James, but she does throw in a term now and then which makes me go WHAT?

As for the story itself, it revolves around a missing girl who is probably dead somewhere. She left under mysterious circumstances and the police receive a note saying someone killed her. There's the usual in which ordinary people don't like/don't trust the police or only tell the police pieces of information and never the 'whole story.' This book was written in the 1960's, so cultural references are mini-skirts, bell bottoms, 60's pop music and the like. That part is okay. I just read it as a period piece.

But the way the dialogue is presented...blimey.