Dora Kidnapped (with no Wexford Law, but a Dora Axiom)
Review of the Audible Studios audiobook edition (May 4, 2009) narrated by Nigel Anthony, of the original hardcover from Hutchinson (UK) (December 12, 1997)

“I don’t want to remember it in a way because it’s so—well, isn’t it awful in our society, the way people with morals and high ideals and courage get labeled as subversive and terrorists? The way that happens and other people who never did a thing in their lives for peace or the environment or against cruelty, they’re the ones that are respected?”

There is a major road works planned in Kingsmarkham with a highway by-pass construction. The residents are organizing to protest the disruption and destruction of the area wildlife and nature along with the possible loss to area business. Dora and Reg Wexford are sympathetic to the cause. But then some activists kidnap several local people and threaten to kill them if the highway construction is not stopped. Among the kidnap victims is Dora Wexford.

With few clues to go on, Wexford and his associates seek answers in order to save the victims, but then the first body turns up. Can the other victims be saved and will the culprits be brought to justice? There is a subplot of an earlier murder which eventually ties into the main plot. The Wexford daughters' subplot this time is at least a joyous one, as actress daughter Sheila gives birth to a grandchild for the Wexfords.

See cover at https://www.covertocover.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/76889_6673958o.jpg
The front cover of the original Hutchinson (UK) 1997 hardcover. Image sourced from Cover to Cover.

This was Wexford #17 in the series of 24 novels. I had previously skipped over #15 to #18 as they were proving difficult to source. No convenient Kindle eBooks exist and the Toronto Public Library online search & hold system was struck down in October 2023 (which is still ongoing, but the latest update is that they hope to restore online holds in February 2024) by a ransomware attack (rumoured to be Russian based) which prevents you from locating and placing books on hold throughout the system (short of physically going around Toronto to each branch personally and searching the shelves by hand). I've decided to complete my Wexford/Rendell binge by sourcing the audiobooks which are not ideal as I am also trying to spot Wexford's personal Laws and Rules along the way. Listening on audio might cause me to miss them.

I can’t properly rate this on the Berengaria Ease of Solving Scale® as I already knew the culprits ahead of time, having watched the TV adaptation. I do think it might be a difficult solve otherwise though.

The narration by Nigel Anthony was excellent in all voices in this edition. As with Christopher Ravenscroft in the previous novel’s audiobook, Anthony was excellent at mimicking the deep-voice gravitas and the West Country burr of actor George Baker (who played Chief Inspector Wexford in the TV series).

Wexford's Laws
There were no Wexford's Laws mentioned in this book. But there was a new category of Dora’s Axioms.

“Most of the things you have worried about,” he said to Dora on the evening of September 1, “have never happened.”
“I know,” she said, “I taught you that axiom,” and as she spoke the phone rang.

There was one observation by Wexford which was the type of thing which might be considered a Wexford Law, but it was not labelled as such:

And as if following a stage direction on the same script, each reached out and they closed together in an embrace, they fell into each other’s arms.
Men would never do that, he thought. So much of awkwardness, of embarrassment, had been left out of women.

Trivia and Links
Road Rage was adapted for television as part of the Ruth Rendell / Inspector Wexford Mysteries TV series (1987-2000) as Season 11 Episodes 4 to 5 in 1998 with actor George Baker as Chief Inspector Wexford. There is a very faulty copy of Episode 5 (i.e. Part 2) available on YouTube here. Episode 4 is not posted, but it is recapped at the start. Otherwise, here in Canada it is available on the Britbox streaming service. ( )

1st Inspector Wexford mystery I have read. Discovered his stories on satellite: Trio/Ruth Rendel Mysteries. Very good mystery about environmental activists who kidnap a group of people to stop a highway bypass from being built.

El inspector Wexford regresa para enfrentarse a un caso deo talante ecologista. Hasta su propia esposa ha sido tomada como rehén, mientras avanzan las obras de una nueva carretera que causará irremediables daños en el entorno natural de su pueblo. Intriga, crítica social e imprevisibles psicologías.

Absorbing tale about the proposed construction of a bypass in a town and the range of types of persons opposed to it. Several different groups, ranging from law-abiding, peaceful citizens to radical tree-spikers descend on the town. Some of them have no regular jobs and make their homes in treetops.

Chief Inspector Wexford is on the side of the opponents but believes the bypass is inevitable. He doesn't plan to take any action, either personal or professional, about it. However, when his own wife goes missing, along with four other citizens, he soon sees a connection between the abduction and the "tree people".

There are many suspects and none. It is like hunting for the needle in the haystack to run down the perps. The investigation involves a local taxi company and its shifty manager as well.

As usual, it is the personal stories, the characters, that make the story sing. I was absorbed all the way through. ( )

The body of a missing hitchhiker is found in woodland which is about to be cut down to make way for a new by-pass. Eco-terrorists take hostages in a bid to get the by-pass project cancelled. Is there any connection?

Enjoyable quick read. I read it soon after it came out in the 1990s but retained almost no memory of it. Will I still remember it 15 or 20 years from now? Probably not. ( )