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Multi-award-winning crime and murder mystery writer Ruth Rendell talks to The Sunday Times chief fiction reviewer Peter Kemp about The Child’s Child, a new crime novel written under her pen name of Barbara Vine. It is an examination of betrayal in families and of the once unmentionable subjects of illegitimacy and homosexuality. Rendell has published 14 novels under the Vine name and The Child’s Child is the first one since The Birthday Present in 2008. Fatal Inversion and King Solomon’s Carpet both won the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award.

Baroness Rendell of Babergh’s most famous creation is Chief Inspector Wexford.  The latest book in the Wexford series, The Vault, was published in 2011. Along with P D James, she is often credited with raising the crime genre from a ‘whodunit’ to a ‘whydunit’ because of the exploration of themes such as chance, coincidence, psychology and the humanity of criminals involved. Many of her works have been adapted for television and film.