Twists in a dragon’s tail

Press, 28 May 1983, Page 16

Twists in a dragon’s tail

The Speaker of Mandarin. By Ruth Rendell. Hutchinson, 1983. 224 pp. $22.25.

Take a quiet, elderly English copper and set him down for a holiday in central China, a reluctant member of a tour party making its way overland from Europe to Hong Kong. Then move him back to his own beat in the English countryside, and turn him loose to solve the murder of one of the returned tourists. Anyone who has made a prolonged tour, by train, ship, or bus, with a group of strangers, will know that the most curious relationships can build up {and break down) in the claustrophobic atmosphere of those who must travel, and eat, and sightsee, and even sleep together in unfamiliar surroundings. Reg Wexford, the quiet copper, managed to stay aloof from his

travelling companions while they were travelling. Pursuing a murderer forces him to look closely at their pasts, their romances, and the manner in which they reacted to one another in Siberia and China. This reviewer recently made a similar trip by train through China and the Soviet Union. In describing the detail, whether of remarkable Chinese attempts to produce “Western breakfast,” or of relations between travellers who are forced to share a railway compartment for days without being on speaking terms, Ruth Rendell has got the flavour exactly right. “The Speaker of Mandarin” also demonstrates that a very good thriller need not be overladen with violence. Her success lies in the ingenuity of the plot, and the succession of twists she manages to give to the tail, of her Chinese dragon.—Naylor Hillary.