Ruth Rendell has won many awards, including the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for 1976's best crime novel with A Demon in My View; a second Edgar in 1984 from the Mystery Writers of America for the best short story, The New Girl Friend; a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986. She was also the winner of the 1990 Sunday Times Literary award, as well as the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.
[Rendell] is unequalled in her ability to create amoral, unprincipled characters, then to make us pity them, until they do something terrible. * Observer * Rendell's gift for characterisation illuminates every interview with a range of suspects and makes it a pleasure to watch Wexford and burden at work. * Sunday Telegraph * End In Tears proved once again that no British novelist knows the heart's hungers like Ruth Rendell. -- Christopher Bray * New Statesman * Probably the greatest living crime writer in the world * Ian Rankin * Chief Inspector Wexford is Rendell's most enduring and best creation * Daily Telegraph *