Editing Ruth Rendell (section)

{{short description|English writer (1930–2015)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name             = The Baroness Rendell of Babergh
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}}
| image            = Ruth Rendell, English author, NY.jpg
| caption          = Rendell in 1985
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1930|02|17}}
| birth_name       = Ruth Barbara Grasemann
| birth_place      = [[Woodford, London|Woodford]], Essex, England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|2015|05|02|1930|02|17|df=y}}
| death_place      = London, England
| occupation       = Novelist
| genre            = {{cslist|[[Psychological thriller]]|[[murder mystery]]}}
| pseudonym       = Ruth Rendell<br>Barbara Vine
}}
'''Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}} ({{nee|'''Grasemann'''}}; 17 February 1930&nbsp;– 2 May 2015) was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/mar/01/ruth-rendell-life-in-writing|title=Ruth Rendell: a life in writing|work=[[The Guardian]]|author=Alison Flood|date=1 March 2013|access-date=1 March 2013}}</ref>

Rendell is best known for creating Chief [[Inspector Wexford]].<ref name="Drabble">The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Sixth edition. Ed. by Margaret Drabble. Oxford University Press,
 2000, p. 847. {{ISBN|0-19-866244-0}}.</ref> A second string of works was a series of unrelated crime novels that explored the psychological background of criminals and their victims. This theme was developed further in a third series of novels, published under the pseudonym '''Barbara Vine'''. 

She has sold an estimated 20 million copies. <ref>https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/159973/ruth-rendell</ref>