From Doon with Death: Part Two

Mr Parsons is convinced that he and his wife knew nobody in Kingsmarkham. The investigation proves him wrong in the most interesting way possible. Margaret had two school acquaintances living in the town: Helen Missal and Fabia Quadrant, both of whom have since married very wealthy men. The quiet housewife's past is turning out to be considerably better connected than her present.

Wexford forms a theory on the strength of it. One of those wealthy husbands, he assumes, must be Doon. The inscription in the antique books was a gift from a lover, and Margaret Parsons was having an affair with a man who could afford to give her books that cost more than most people's monthly wages. It is a tidy hypothesis, motive included, and the episode lets Wexford hold it for exactly as long as it takes for the story to remind him that appearances can be deceptive. The hour first went out on the 17th of November 1991, and it takes its time with the schoolgirls' reunion, letting the two women's present wealth and past friendship sit side by side. Wexford's Doon theory is built from the inscription in the books, and the episode lets him assemble it at leisure, the better to knock it down later.

Amanda Redman's Helen Missal and Elizabeth Bennett's Fabia Quadrant are the key witnesses, women whose schoolgirl connection to the victim has aged into something more complicated, and Geoffrey Bateman's Douglas Quadrant, Malcolm Storry's Ron Parsons, Sally Grace's Clare Clark and Amanda Mainard's Di Stevens keep the town peopled. Louie Ramsay's Dora and Diane Keen's Jenny provide the domestic counterpoint. Ruth Rendell wrote the script, and Mary McMurray directed.

The episode is a warning about the dangers of a neat answer. Wexford has his suspect, his motive and his inscription, and the hour ends with the case looking almost solved. That is exactly when Rendell liked to pull the rug, and the second part's job is to show the reader, and the detective, how much the tidy version leaves out.