The Ruth Rendell Mysteries - Season 6

1. The Speaker of Mandarin: Part One

Aired: 9/27/1992

Wexford is in China on a study tour of historic sites. To his amazement, he has psychic experiences, including a vision of the body of a Chinese nobleman dead for two thousand years. Wexford's tour party is made up of strangers, but he feels tense and claustrophobic among them. Then a young Chinese student drowns during the trip. On his return to England, Wexford is called to a murder scene, and the dead woman, who has been shot, was one of those with him on his Chinese trip. There is no obvious motive, and he decides to investigate all his fellow tourists, finding hidden greed, treachery, theft, and adultery.

2. The Speaker of Mandarin: Part Two

Aired: 10/4/1992

3. The Speaker of Mandarin: Part Three

Aired: 10/11/1992

4. The Mouse in the Corner: Part One

Aired: 10/18/1992

Tom Peterlee, a member of a large family who live in three adjoining cottages, is murdered. Eva, his mother is quite cavalier in reaction to his death in Wexford's opinion and other family members are no more helpful. Heather, his widow, seems dumb with grief and his brother and meek sister-in-law are similarly evasive. Family friend Carol is more forthcoming, providing Heather with an alibi, but Wexford is sure one of the Peterlees is a killer. Burden has problems of his own when his daughter starts dating a married man and a series of ramraids in Kingsmarkham add to Wexford's problems.

5. The Mouse in the Corner: Part Two

Aired: 10/25/1992

6. An Unwanted Woman: Part One

Aired: 11/1/1992

Wexford investigates the killing of an elderly woman. Harry and Doreen Betts of Kingsmarkham are suspected of murdering their mother. But did they do it, or have they been framed?

7. An Unwanted Woman: Part Two

Aired: 11/8/1992

8. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part One

Aired: 11/15/1992

A Kingsmarkham police sergeant dies, carrying a replica gun he had taken from his young son... Then, one year later, Wexford is called to Tancred House, where Davina Flory and her family lie shot dead in a pool of blood. The only survivor is seventeen-year-old Daisy Flory. There are no other witnesses, and the two possible suspects have vanished into thin air. Then a blackmailer is found dangling from a tree... Wexford slowly uncovers a web of motives, greed, illicit sex, and revenge.

9. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part Two

Aired: 11/22/1992

10. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part Three

Aired: 11/29/1992

11. Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Part Four

Aired: 12/6/1992