I've been reading a book that stinks-literally. I received it from a book swap with the warning that the front cover was folded as if the book had been read in one hand with the front cover bent around the back. That doesn't bother me because I'm one of the worst abusers of books (my own-I'm very careful with others'. However, I have taught my kids the same bad habits, much to the dismay of my husband). I don't think a book is properly readable until the back has been broken and I love used books with comments in the margins. I even love an old book musty smell. However, I was not warned that at least one of the previous owners was a smoker-and obviously loved to smoke while reading (hence the folding back of the book cover? book in one hand, cigarette in the other?) I had to hold it uncomfortably far away from my face and turn the pages one at a time, slowly or I would get a waft of cigarette smoke. I would only hold it with one hand because my hand would come away smelling like smoke and I was very careful what surfaces I set it down on. I can't remember ever actually throwing a book away-not a huge fan of censorship or book burnings! However, when I finish this post this one goes straight into the recycle bin!

This is all very unfortunate because the book is Harm Done by Ruth Rendell. She writes a continuing character by the name Inspector Reg Wexford. I like police procedurals even though they are everywhere and, generally speaking, people frequently look down their noses at them-probably because they have been so prevalent in the last several years. The only thing better than an American police procedural is an English one. This one is set in Kingsmarkham-a small town in the English countryside. That's as close to locating it as I can get.

This one was a little annoying because it started off with a crime to be solved that turned out to be only tangentially related to the major crime that becomes the focus of the book. A lot of time was spent setting up the circumstances of the original crime and I kept wishing she would bring the story back into line with that until I realized that it really wasn't important except in how it set up the later episodes

I realize that I've gone on too long-again. Suffice it to say that I will continue to read Ruth Rendell. I thoroughly enjoy her characters, I like spending a little bit of time in England, and I do like police procedurals.