Speaker of Mandarin

Inspector Wexford #12

by Ruth Rendell

Chief Inspector Wexford is in China, visiting ancient tombs and palaces with a group of British tourists. After their return to England, one of his fellow tourists is found murdered. As he questions other members of the group, Wexford finds secrets of greed, treachery, theft, and adultery, leading the distressed inspector to ask not who is innocent, but who is least guilty . . .

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Detective, British Literature, China, Mystery Thriller

213 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

A.K.A. Barbara Vine

Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, who also wrote under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, was an acclaimed English crime writer, known for her many psychological thrillers and murder mysteries and above all for Inspector Wexford.

Reviews

[Bionic Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Number 12 in Ruth Rendell's Inpector Wexford Series feels different from the earlier ones, being partly set in China. Wexford's consumption of green tea throughout the novel gives a slightly heady cast to the proceedings, and makes both him and the reader wonder if he is bringing his usual clear-headed analysis to the crime.

[Bettie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read by.................. Michael Bryant
Total Runtime......... 5 Hours 52 Mins

Description: Chief Inspector Wexford is in China visiting ancient tombs and palaces with a group of British tourists. After their return to England, one of his fellow tourists is found murdered - a burglary it seems, but Wexford has other ideas. As he questions other members of the group, Wexford finds secrets of greed, treachery, theft, and adultery, leading the distressed inspector to ask not who is innocent, but who is least guilty . . .

I am hoping this is not the jumping the shark book, that it was a dire one-off, a tragic mistake. Only way to find out is to dive in to the next one.


3* From Doon With Death (Inspector Wexford, #1)
3* A New Lease of Death (Inspector Wexford, #2)
3* Wolf to the Slaughter (Inspector Wexford, #3)
2* The Best Man to Die (Inspector Wexford, #4)
3* A Guilty Thing Suprised #5
3* No More Dying Then (Inspector Wexford, #6)
3* Murder Being Once Done (Inspector Wexford, #7)
3* Some Lie and Some Die (Inspector Wexford, #8)
3* Shake Hands Forever (Inspector Wexford, #9)
3* A Sleeping Life (Inspector Wexford, #10)
3* Put on by Cunning (Inspector Wexford #11)
1* Speaker of Mandarin (Inspector Wexford, #12)

3* Not in the Flesh (Inspector Wexford, #21)
2* The Vault (Inspector Wexford, #23)

[Alan (on December semi-hiatus) Teder · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wexford Hallucinates and Rendell brings the Cringe
Review of the Arrow Books/Cornerstone Digital Kindle eBook edition (2010) of the original Hutchinson (UK) hardcover (1983).

‘Velly well. I hope you not leglet,’ said Mr Sung, indignation, as any emotion did, causing acute confusion in the pronunciation of liquids. ‘I aflaid you be solly.’ - Wexford’s Chinese tour guide reacts to his refusal to view the college attended by Chairman Mao Tse-Tung.

I was only a few pages into The Speaker of Mandarin before the cringe began with Rendell’s portrayal of Wexford’s Chinese tour guide. Thankfully it is mostly contained in those early pages. The book has an odd beginning as the first 1/3rd of it tells of Wexford’s trip to China on a police investigative procedures exchange mission organized by Wexford’s nephew, & London CID Chief Inspector, Howard Fortune. After the official meetings Wexford takes a solo vacation to various tourist sites before joining his wife Dora in Hong Kong. The tour group trip in Communist China is monitored of course by the authorities, with a full-time guide individually assigned to him. During his travels Wexford consumes an inordinate amount of green tea to combat the heat and suffers from hallucinations as a result*.

There are other people on the tour and various odd events occur, including one seemingly accidental death of a local Chinese man. On Wexford’s return home there is a murder of one of the other tourists from the journey and the investigation requires that he re-examine those tour events in hindsight to understand the reason for the recent crime. There are of course a few twists along the way and the explanation for the book’s title is also not explained until the end.

The cringe at the front end was brief, but still the overall arc of the book felt unsatisfactory and I just can’t say that I even liked it. It falls into the rare case of a 2 star “it was just ok” rating, compared to my usual 3 to 5 star ratings for Rendell’s books and those of her alter-ego Barbara Vine. Also Wexford's usual references, quotes and allusions to classic literature, which often provide comic relief, were few and far between.

This book continued my 2023 binge read / re-read of Ruth Rendell and this is the 12th of the Inspector Wexford series. I’m trying to read the Wexfords in chronological order, but had to temporarily skip over #11 Put on by Cunning (1981), as it has been difficult to source.


Cover image for the original Hutchinson (UK) hardcover edition from 1983. Image sourced from Wikipedia. May be found at the following website: http://pictures.abebooks.com/SARAWILLIAMS2/8463207784.jpg., Fair use, Link

Footnote
* The reason for the hallucinations is not revealed until the end of the book by Wexford’s doctor so that is why I’ve spoiler blocked it. Once you read about it you will definitely want to google it though, and you get results like this .

Other Reviews
The review at The Passing Tramp is based on a 2019 re-read and also mentions the now dated racial stereotyped portrayals. The review goes on to mention Rendell having toured the Far East (which likely provided source material for the book) and her own distant family connection to a Burmese relative.

Trivia and Links
The Speaker of Mandarin was adapted for television as part of the Ruth Rendell / Inspector Wexford Mysteries TV series (1987-2000) as Season 6 Episodes 1 to 3 in 1992 with actor George Baker as Inspector Wexford. You can watch the entire 3 episodes on YouTube here.

While reading The Speaker of Mandarin, I happened to notice a recent CNN March 27, 2023 article about modern day edits of Agatha Christie's books. While I am against censorship in general, as I think it is better to learn from the mistakes of the past, there are certainly cases where it seems warranted, such as the unfortunate original 2 titles of Christie's And Then There Were None (1939).

[Margie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked some of the twists in this mystery. After reading some of the other reviews, I'll concede that Rendell doesn't tell us much about Wexford (the detective) - I felt comfortable with him because I've read so many of the Wexford mysteries and perhaps didn't notice how scant her descriptions were.

It's was definitely the mystery itself (and its various subplots) that engaged me. I found the racism rather unpalatable, though. It's hard to believe that this was written only thirty years ago. The use of the words "inscrutable" and "slant-eyed," as well as writing 'l' for 'r' to make explicit someone's difficulty with English sounds, just in the first three pages, was a bit of a shock - it seemed more like a novel from the 1930s than from the '80s.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked what some reviewers disliked - the trip to China that begins the book and influences the way Wexford approaches the murder. His observations of people and places shape our understanding of the world of the book and crimes of its characters. Rendell is so skilful a storyteller - a lovely rhythm and balance to the writing and juxtaposing of events; behaviour and thinking processes based on character traits that are predictable but never stereotyped. An ordinary enough murder and a great read.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPOILERS AHEAD

A good mystery. Some excellent red herrings. Wexford visits China and one of the people on a tour he meets is murdered. Suspicion falls on her husband as he was having an affair with someone he loved 20 years ago. Then Wexford believes it was a criminal who the barrister got off hanging who did it in gratitude.

The reality is that the motive was money. Knighton’s son-in-law had been embezzling his wife’s trust fund as he was deeply in debt. Poor Knighton thinking the criminal had murdered his wife and racked with guilt killed himself. Appearances can be deceiving.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Speaker of Mandarin by Ruth Rendell.

Chief Inspector Wexford is on a trip in china. A long trip and a very uncomfortable trip with none of the conveniences of home. While on a short boat ride with other tourists a man falls overboard and appears to be lost at sea. All this occurs while Wexford's hallucination of an elderly Chinese woman appearing continues without reason.
The Chief Inspector returns home and finds himself once again in the midst of a murder that needs solving. A wealthy woman, Adela Knighton, has been found dead at home shot in the back of her head. Some how people from his trip to China are in the mix of characters in this drama being played out.

This story was a bit tiring to me in the beginning. I found it uninteresting and then...Wexford took over and once again I was brought into a riveting mystery that only R.R. could bring us. The ending floored me completely.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a masterful police procedural this is. Rendell wrote this in the 1980s, shortly after China opened to the West. She beautifully captures the oddities of train travel and life under Communist Party rule, the humid heat of Guangzhou and the strange beauty of the southern mountains in the city of Guilin.

Shortly after the return of famed police Chief Inspector Wexford to England, deaths among those he’d met while traveling in China ties their lives together once again. Rendell was in her fifties and at the height of her powers when she wrote this book and it shows in every sentence. She somehow makes star-crossed love stories believable and the chintz-upholstered, heavily-draped world of the wealthy in England accessible.

Rendell died in 2015 but she remains one of Britain’s mystery greats.

[Jaksen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another in the long Inspector Wexford series by Ruth Rendell, and by far one of her best.

In this one a man's wife is found dead, shot in the back of the head, shortly after they've returned from a trip to China. There are A LOT of suspects here, including almost every member of the tour group. There are A LOT of clues and information for both Wexford, his sidekick Burden, and anyone reading this book to process, consider, kick aside, or set in the omg-that's-probably-it column of the brain. (I should have set up a 'cue card,' as I often do with character-heavy books. So often I'd be reading and Wexford is off to interview this one or that one and I'd think okay, who is THAT?)

But I still loved the book for its complexity of plot, its utterly believable cast of characters, the interplay between Wexford and Burden, and even for the way Rendell develops those characters who return throughout the series. Burden is starting to see the world in varying shades of gray - rather than black and white - and Wexford questions the way he sees people, questions his himself and his own sanity. (He keeps seeing a woman with bound feet approaching him. Is she real? Is he hallucinating? And if so, why?)

Loved this book for a lot of reasons. A perfect mystery, IMO. :D

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog here in May 1998.

This is a short member of the Inspector Wexford series of crime novels. The first half describes a holiday he had in China; the second his investigation of the murder of a middle-aged woman who was on a coach-party he met there.

The description of the trip to China is the most interesting part of the novel; the murder and investigation seem almost to have been put in to pad the novel out and to fit it in with the general themes of the series.

The juxtaposition of the two parts does mean that the novel suffers from the complaint I particularly dislike about Ngaio Marsh: the strange coincidence which means the investigator meets the victim beforehand.

The mystery also has a rather abrupt ending, and is rather unsatisfactory; to explain why I would have to give it away. In conclusion, there are better Wexford books, but the description of a holiday in China before these were commonplace is worth reading.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As beautifully written as all of her books are, this entry in Ruth Rendell's Inspector Wexford series was not my favorite. It was interesting, but excruciatingly dated with respect to the references to China, where the story begins, and rather ho-hum overall once Wexford leaves China. In fact, his visit to China is rather surreal and creepy...really my favorite part of the book.

Part of the problem for me was really not reading the book in its entirety within a few days. I started it and got 50 pages in one day, and then didn't touch it again for a week...and had trouble remembering who the characters were.

The murder, when it comes, sends Wexford scurrying back and forth to London to try to put together all of the pieces. I always enjoy “watching” him work, but also had a fairly good idea of what had happened and why, so there was little suspense.

But, again, this being Rendell, the book was more about the journey than the destination. I'm certainly not unhappy that I read it, but must remember to read mysteries within a few days so that the details don't elude me!

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is a confession to murder really a confession or is there something else to consider? This story takes a considerable number of twists and turns and in the end it's not what you expect. Typical Rendell.

[Kieran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Racist in a 1970's way.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

4* Going Wrong
4* The Keys to the Street
3* The Fever Tree and Other Stories
4* A Judgement in Stone
3* Fall of the Coin
4* People Don't Do Such Things
3* The Girl Next Door
2* To Fear a Painted Devil
3* Dark Corners
3* Live Flesh
4* The St. Zita Society
4* The Bridesmaid

Inspector Wexford series:
3* From Doon With Death (Inspector Wexford, #1)
3* A New Lease of Death (Inspector Wexford, #2)
3* Murder Being Once Done (Inspector Wexford, #7)
3* Some Lie and Some Die (Inspector Wexford, #8)
3* Shake Hands Forever (Inspector Wexford, #9)
3* A Sleeping Life (Inspector Wexford, #10)
2.5* Speaker of Mandarin (Inspector Wexford, #12)
3* The Veiled One (Inspector Wexford, #14)
4* Kissing the Gunner's Daughter (Inspector Wexford, #15)
3* Harm Done (Inspector Wexford, #18)
3* The Babes in the Wood (Inspector Wexford, #19)
3* End in Tears (Inspector Wexford, #20)
TR Wolf to the Slaughter (Inspector Wexford, #3)
TR The Best Man to Die (Inspector Wexford, #4)
TR A Guilty Thing Surprised (Inspector Wexford, #5)
TR No More Dying Then (Inspector Wexford, #6)
TR Death Notes (Inspector Wexford, #11)
TR An Unkindness of Ravens (Inspector Wexford, #13)
TR Simisola (Inspector Wexford, #16)
TR Road Rage (Inspector Wexford, #17)
TR Not in the Flesh (Inspector Wexford, #21)
TR The Monster in the Box (Inspector Wexford, #22)
TR The Vault (Inspector Wexford, #23)
TR No Man's Nightingale (Inspector Wexford #24)

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Het lijkt wel of Ruth Rendell blijft groeien met de verhalen rond inspecteur Wexford. In dit boek begint het met een flinke brok chinese cultuur in een magisch-realistisch sausje. Heel origineel en compleeet nieuw voor de Wexford boeken. Rendell bouwt zo een zekere spanning op waarbij het tot op het einde van het boek duurt vooraleer ere een bevredigende uitleg voor gevonden wordt. China, chinezen, chinees eten en thee blijven als een rode draad door het boek heen lopen.
Het boek dateert uit een tijd dat Hong Kong nog een vrijhaven was maar, hoewel het ter sprake komt, is dat niet bepalend voor het verhaal. Het échte communistische en onvrije china is dat wel.
Toch verlegt de scène zich na enkele hoofdstukken naar Engeland waar Wexford in zijn vertrouwde omgeving en met zijn vertrouwde helpers te maken krijgt met de gebruikelijke moord.
Psychologische zijn de karakters goed uitgewerkt en er worden ook veel hints gestrooid zodat de lezer steeds mee denkt. Maar wanneer dan iets bevestigd wordt blijkt meteen door een nieuwe plottwist dat het allemaal toch net iets anders in mekaar zit.
Uiteindelijk kwam de echte opolossing niet als een grote verrassing maar het boek leest super aangenaam, zit heel goed in mekaar en blijft spannend tot het einde.

[Denise Spicer · Rating 4 out of 5]

No cover art credit
This 212 page Inspector Wexford mystery has murder, suicid, Red Herrings, and two false confessions. Sheesh!!
Anyway, it is a very clever and well-written plot with the author's usual interesting characters. About the first third of the book is a delightful depiction of Wexford's visit to China. There are fun tidbits about touring China with the official Communist tour guide, as well as local descriptions including food and fellow tourists. The author also does a great job of slipping in references to the Victorian ghost stories of M. R. James and Sheridan Le Fanu. Wexford keeps seeing an elderly Chinese woman with bound feet but fears he is hallucinating. Back home in England, one of his fellow travelers is shot in the back of her head and thus Wexford is drawn into the investigation. The story includes quotes from Chinese poets.

[Lucy Barnhouse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a very strong installment in the Wexford series, creatively and subtly plotted. As an aficionado of mystery novels, I admire and enjoy the skilled placement of clues, and Rendell's construction here is extremely clever. Also, I thought it functioned as a striking indictment of racism and Orientalism. While both of these are present, and as distasteful as other reviews indicate, I didn't read these as reflecting the attitude of the author. I appreciated, in fact, that Wexford is shown as guilty of some Orientalist attitudes, even while disapproving and acting against more active racism/exploitation.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just the right length Audio book for driving from Eugene Oregon to Boise Idaho. The reader, Michael Bryant, made the book. (I suspect that it would have been 3 stars if I'd read it.)

The book starts with a trip to 1980's China that turns out to tie into a a murder that Wexford is called to investigate back home in England. Ruth Rendell throws in plenty of red herrings that whiled away the miles.

[Becky Mowat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This mystery is fascinating! Especially if you've ever wanted to tour China, which has been on my "bucket list" forever. Rendell builds her characters throughout with her wry observations! Her writing is brilliant! You will stay hooked by the intriguing plot and masterful, clever writing. This mystery has it all!

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly complex whodunit that is as simple as green tea. Every time I guessed right I also missed something important. Genius. (Her, not me!)

[Suheyla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Polisiye roman dalında kraliçe addedilen Ruth Rendell'in gerçekten de ne kadar iyi bir yazar olduğunu bu kitapla anlayabiliyor insan. Birinci bölümü biraz sıkıcıydı. Meğer toprağa atılan tohumlar gibi olay örgüsünün başlangıç ilmekleriymiş. Çin'de yapılan bir turistik geziyi, kahramanı ile beraber gezdik dolaştık fikir yürüttük. Gördüğü mumyanın halisünasyonlarıyla biz de korktuk, tanıştığı insanlarla biz de sohbet ettik, farklılıkları merak ettik. Ve ikinci bölüm ile kahramanın varanı ingiltereye dönüp işinin başına geçtiğimizde biz de dikkatimizi yoğunlaştırdık cinayetin ipuçlarını onunla beraber sürdük. Gizemi araştırdık, geçmişte kalmış Mandarindeki geziye yeniden döndük. Doğrusu rehberim, bu işini bilen dedektif olmasaydı düğümü çözemez, faili mechul bir cinayet olarak rafa kaldırırdım. Neyse ki kahramanın yazarla arası iyi de bir kaç tüyo ile işi okuyucu olarak kotardık.

[Roshni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The way this book starts is a bit disconcerting because it seems almost horror-like. The Inspector takes a trip to China and green tea visions ensue. The rest of the book is more traditional British mystery format with a death of someone familiar and many connections to the China trip. Overall, a slight step outside the usual pattern, and I think it works to make this different from the typical murder mystery.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Around the World of Crime and Mystery
1983 (but feels like 1930s or so)
Cast - 2: We know little initially about the first murdered person (in China): frustrating that we never do . Yes, the person is 12,000 miles from England but the author just tosses this HUMAN away. Vaguely xenophobic. What we do learn about an old woman with bound feet didn't make sense to me. (green tea causes hallucinations...or something?) Wexford a blank.
Crime - 3: Is a first murder related to a second?
Atmosphere - 4 stars: China is beautifully rendered it seems. (I've never been there.) Yes, there is xenophobia among the cast, and it's real.
Investigation - 2 stars: A crime of passion and no one turns to the family?
Resolution - 2: Odd. Questionable.
Summary - 2.6. The big flaw here is the first third is very, very good. But the rest, not so much.

[Liz Chapman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is somewhat old fashioned and refers to film stars that the modern generations probably have never heard of . Back to phone boxes and letters and detective work on foot . It lost energy by the end and I got a bit muddled with the characters. I didn't much like the TV series of Wexford but I thought I'd give one of the books a go . Not her best I think .

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This entry into the Inspector Wexford series started off differently than the others. He is invited to tour China with his nephew, a Scotland Yard chief superintendent. He is put into the capable hands of Mr. Sung, his tour guide, who wants to show off the Communists police stations, courts, prisons, etc. Several strange but interesting things happen on this trip that are later explained. I enjoyed this portion of the book.

When Wexford returns to Kingsmarkham the book seemed to slow down. One of the people in his tour group is killed and Wexford is assigned to the case. Needless to say, other members from the group are surprised to learn that he is a policeman. I thought the ending was rather rushed and there is also casual racism (the book was published in 1983). This was not one of my favorites in the series
but still a good read.

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good police procedural sees Wexford seek a murderer of a local woman who he met on a sightseeing trip in China

[Julianne Coppola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love a good Wexford novel, really enjoyed this one

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I managed to read this one out of order by mistake (only realising when Burden's new wife was mentioned). Still, it didn't make much difference.

There are some good points, some negative. Certainly the xenophobia and racist approach to Wexford's China trip that kicks off the book makes for uncomfortable reading. It's odd, as Wexford is usually portrayed as liberal and welcoming to all and yet despite clearly enjoying being there his attitude is irascible and grouchy. Maybe it was just the heat, maybe not.

Still, in many ways this felt more like a Christie Poirot book with the 'exotic' location and the large cast of characters, red herrings and various subplots. It all tied together and like many of RR's stories, the actual killer is given almost as an afterthought, off screen and summarily tied up. Still, it's the journey.

One of the other negatives was the narration by Michael Bryant who opted for racist Chinese caricature accidents yet had very little to distinguish the rest of the cast, with Wexford and Burden sounding almost identical and the former lacking his usual gruff country accent that the other narrators have used.

I'm getting a little Wexford fatigue now having listened to so many in such a short time period. I think I might need a palate cleanser before continuing.

[Mads (book.wirm) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book did not attest to Ruth Rendell’s writing, so it wasn’t my smartest choice for a break into her work. Essentially, I needed a book published 15 years before I was born for a reading challenge, and because I’ve been meaning to read Rendell’s work for years it seemed fortuitous that she had published this in 1984. However, I suspected ‘The Speaker of Mandarin’ would be dicey from reviews and also the context of the time it was written so, while this won’t be my last Rendell, I won’t be rating it very high.

The writing was fine, immersive and powerful—at times haunting—but I couldn’t get past the poor representation of the Chinese characters and culture. There are better crime novels written by extraordinary Chinese voices to read nowadays, so I’ll be reading those instead. I’ll be more scrupulous when I choose my next Rendell so as to avoid such disappointment in future.

Some crime authors I suggest reading for positive Chinese representation are Diane Wei Liang, Grace D. Li, Susan Barker, and Qiu Xiaolong. Their books are incredible and I promise you won’t be cringing at racist overtones from the viewpoint narrator while you read.

Madi

[Tim Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ruth Rendell is truly the mistress of psychological mysteries. Her Inspector Wexford novels are a perfect combination of the great detective novel and a brilliant, piercing pscychological novel. Unlike the usual Wexford novel, this does not begin in England, but in China. Wexford is attending an observation by the British police of China and its systems. While there, Wexford finds himself by a ghostly elderly Chinese woman with bound feet. He eventually finds himself involved with a group of British tourists. When he arrives back in England, he is called to the scene of a crime where one of the tourists is murdered. Rendell usually does not build on a supernatural theme, but she does with this novel. The solutions, when it occurs, is brilliantly shocking. Once again, Ruth Rendell has me in awe of her brilliance.