British mystery and crime writer Ruth Rendell - one of the most prolific authors in the genre, with more than 60 novels - has died at age 85 following a stroke in January.
Rendell was best known for creating Inspector Reginald Wexford, a character that was later translated for television, becoming a popular series on British and American TV. She brought a psychological depth to the class mystery that gave readers unusual access to the emotional makeup of seeming ordinary people capable of foul deeds.
In an unaired interview we did with her in November of 2014 for her most recent novel, The Girl Next Door, we spoke about how she thought she'd grown as a writer over the course of her career.