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  • An Unkindness of Ravens

  • A Chief Inspector Wexford Mystery, Book 13
  • By: Ruth Rendell
  • Narrated by: Michael Bryant
  • Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (563 ratings)
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An Unkindness of Ravens

By: Ruth Rendell
Narrated by: Michael Bryant
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Summary

Rodney Williams's disappearance seems typical to Chief Inspector Wexford - a simple case of a man running off with a woman other than his wife. But when another woman reports that her husband is missing, the case turns unpleasantly complex.
©1985 Kingsmarkham Enterprises, LLC. (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about An Unkindness of Ravens

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Dated and ridiculously misogynistic

First third was excellent, then it gets bogged down in weird, dated and confused misogyny. Endless wittering about a caricatured group of young feminists. Ridiculous, creepy and offensive comments about rape and incestuous rape.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Not For Fainthearts or the Easily Offended

Excellent detective story that’s all the more entertaining for its evocation of the period in which Rendell was writing. Personally I like Wexford’s character - his intellectual interests, his observations on the changing world around him.
Those who criticize the book for misogyny , for anti-feminism and insensitive treatment of incest are symptomatic of the banality of our times. Back in the late Seventies and early Eighties there was considerable tension between radical and liberal feminism and Rendell is reflecting that, not taking a stand. In fact the issues she raises through her narrative are precisely those discussed in Consciousness Raising Groups at that time – the woman’s lived experience of subjugation, objectification and dependence: within and without the home.
Incest is a taboo subject in polite conversation, but it is a fact. As is False Memory Syndrome and deliberate false accusations by adolescents to escape an impossible family situation. Rendell’s nerve to tackle the topic is to be admired not denigrated.

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3 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Dreadful!

I've enjoyed many Rendell books. But this? This is terrible. Wexford is a terrible detective!
I will make sure I avoid him forever.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Aged badly

Unfortunately this has not stood the test of time. It is very misogynistic, it's views on and attitudes towards women are unpleasant and judgemental. Some very uncomfortable views on child abuse are expressed by some characters which seem to be accepted by others as not completely unreasonable.

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1 person found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Could be upsetting to some.

Unfortunately this book contains outdated descriptions and attitudes towards child sexual abuse that could be upsetting to some. Describing child sexual abuse as "parental seduction" is a horrible sign of the time the book was written. Obviously won't be an issue for everyone.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Ruth Rendell, Unkindness of Ravens

This 1985 literary detective novel was written at lye height of radical feminism, except here we encounter a schoolgirl interpretation of this tendency in feminism. It first seems to be the backdrop to Chief Inspector and Inspector Burden investigate a murder, only to find themselves threatened by the multiple styles of womanhood, from conventional eye-blinking feminine (Wendy Williams), to the liberal feminism of Sheila Wexford, to the radical approach of the young women's empowerment group ARRIA. What induces two young daughters of the same man to murder him? That matter is what still the novel horribly unputdownable. It's theme is one Rendell tackled in an early novel, A Guilty Thing Surprised, but tackles it here with the horror and force of the poet Shelley's play, The Cenci.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Perhaps the very best Rendell of all. Excellent narrator

This narrator is brilliant. And this Rendell is masterful; in addition to everything we love about Wexford stories, it has intrigue, twists, drama and politics.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

intriguing plot

Another masterpiece by Ruth, great characters, intriguing plot, nicely wrapped up at the end. A great read

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

good story undone by dated and wrong psychology

this was well written and compelling. however, the psychodynamic theorising at the end is sexist, wrong, and very dated.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • mo
  • 10-01-24

Well read and written subject to the misogyny of the day

Well read and written but hostage to beliefs and behaviours of another time. If you can overlook the terrible misogyny it's an interesting yarn. You can't cancel a book just because Spoiler Alert it attests that young women who profess to have been sexually abused by their fathers are actually fantasists and have imagined it all, according to the theories of Freud wanting to be Daddy's little girl. Wrongly attributing this to an Oedipus complex -wrong complex! Disturbing thought is that it's written by a woman but then we are often our own indoctrinated worst enemies. I give you FGM. Other dated assertations being that it's okay for young policeman to entrap homosexual men by frequenting public lavatories and of course pregnancy makes women mad but just ignore them.Nowdays we know now puerperal psychosis is a high risk serious mental illness and we gave Google.
Perhaps it's just best to think of the strides we have taken in society in addressing such issues and enjoy it as a jolly good read!

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