Ruth Rendell’s FROM DOON WITH DEATH Part One: Searching for Kingsmarkham
The Curiously Specific Book ClubShow Notes
We’re off on our next adventure, and this time our guide is Ruth Rendell, the grandest of literary detective dames and inventor of the town of Kingsmarkham, and its watchful Chief Inspector Wexford. We start where Rendell started – with her very first book, FROM DOON WITH DEATH, published in 1964. We’re introduced to Wexford and a cast of local characters in the Sussex town of Kingsmarkham. And we take Rendell’s word on trust because she herself tells us, in the afterword to the book, that Kingsmarkham is ‘based on’ Midhurst.
But when we get to Midhurst, we are troubled by the lack of similarities with this pleasant little town nestled in the South Downs National Park, and Rendell’s creation. Could she be having us on? To what extent could Midhurst possibly be Kingsmarkham? For instance - where is the train station? We begin to worry…..
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