“From Doon with Death” by Ruth Rendell: In this first of the twenty-four Chief Inspector Wexford novels, he fails to understand the murderer

The murder victim is a woman who had received love letters from someone named “Doon.” For most of the novel, the unknown Doon is assumed to be a man. But it turns out that Doon is a pseudonym of one of the married female characters, whose secret lesbian love for the victim had been rejected. 

Neither Chief Inspector Wexford nor anyone else in this novel ever wonders why the murderer had written private, confidential, love letters using a pseudonym, or why she even had a pseudonym. Nor does anyone wonder what kind of mental illness she suffers.

Back in 1964, when this novel was published, did the public think that lesbianism, per se, was a potentially violent psychosis? Or does this novel simply invoke what I have previously referred to as “literary madness,” which does not distinguish between schizophrenia and multiple personality?

People with schizophrenia do not have multiple names. People with multiple personality do.

Interestingly, Ruth Rendell, herself, grew up in a family that referred to her by two different names, Ruth and Barbara, which correspond to the two names under which she published novels, Ruth Rendell and Barbara Vine. As she explained:

“Growing up with two different names doesn’t make you into two people. It does give you two aspects of personality, and Ruth and Barbara are two aspects of me. Ruth is tougher, colder, more analytical, possibly more aggressive. Ruth has written all the novels, created Chief Inspector Wexford. Ruth is the professional writer. Barbara is more feminine. It is Barbara who sews. If Barbara writes it is letters that she writes” (1).

1. “What’s the difference between Vine and Rendell? https://www.gusworld.com.au/books/vine/why.htm