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Ruth Rendell Mysteries Season 10 Episodes
Season 10 Episode Guide
8 Episodes 1997 - 1997
Episode 1
The Double
60 mins
Peter Milton and Lisa Cleasant are engaged and will soon be getting married. Peter is a brash stockbroker in the City and Lisa is timid and very superstitious. One day they meet Zoe, who is the spitting image of Lisa but very different in personality: she is confident, flirtatious and daring. Being superstitious, Lisa believes that if you meet someone who is your double, you will die within the month. While she is on holiday in Mexico with her equally superstitious mother, Peter and Zoe have a brief but torrid affair. When Lisa returns, she arranges to meet Peter at their "special place" in the woods. But when Zoe also turns up, it looks as if Lisa's superstition might actually happen.
Episode 2
Bribery & Corruption: Part One
120 mins
Nicholas Hawthorne has been in love with Emma Sorensen since he was a young teenager. Now 22, he is a graduate engineer looking for a job as a boat designer. He's been raised by his father and all in all has had a good, if somewhat sheltered, life. Soon after Nicholas sees Emma's husband, Julius, in a posh restaurant with an attractive young woman, Emma is found dead, floating in the bay and the police don't think her death was an accident.
Episode 3
Bribery & Corruption: Part Two
52 mins
Nick Hawthorne's attempted suicide leaves him badly injured and in hospital. He remains the police's number one suspect in the case. Nicholas Hawthorne continues to conduct his own investigation assisted by his new friend Annabel Lynes. When Nicholas finds documents in Julius' office indicating that his now dead wife was going to sell her part of the business, Annabel is convinced that Julius is behind the murder. She has her own interests in the case however. Although Julius Sorensen learns the identity of his wife's killer, he is blackmailed into keeping quiet.
Episode 4
May and June: Part One
52 mins
When her brother-in-law William Symonds dies, May Thrace returns to her home town after a 20 year absence to attend his funeral. She is not there, as she makes quite plain, to visit her now widowed sister June. The two have been estranged for a long-time and have not seen or spoke to one another since their mother's funeral 7 years before. Even as children, they bickered constantly and May always felt that June was her parents', especially her father's, favorite. May and William were once engaged but that soon came to an end when William met and eventually married June. May attempted suicide as a result of her broken heart. June would very much like to reconcile with May and asks her to come and live with her.
Episode 5
May and June: Part Two
52 mins
Having reconciled their differences, May agrees to June's suggestion that they live together. From all appearances, May seems to have forgotten, or is at least willing to overlook, that June married her one true love. As May settles into the village however, she forms a close attachment to June's friend John Dyson and soon the two are lovers. As June realizes that her own relationship with John will come to an end, she becomes unhappier in their living arrangement and actually asks May to move out. While May seems to take it all quite calmly, it is only because everything is going just according to plan.
Episode 6
Thornapple
60 mins
Twelve-year-old James lives with his parents and sister. He has a scientific mind and a load of jars, all containing poisons which he has manufactured from plants in the garden - his favourite being Thornapple. When cousin Mirabel and her baby come to stay, James is captivated by Mirabel, who has been rejected by her boyfriend. Mirabel's aunt June, who had also rejected her, suddenly puts her into her good books again, but when June dies, supposedly of gastric complications and leaving Mirabel a large sum of money, James has his doubts as to the true cause of death.
Episode 7
Front Seat
60 mins
Back in her childhood hometown, Cecily Branksome finds that a park bench in her father's honor has been replaced by one placed there in memory of Rupert Moore, a reputed murderer. To get even, she decides to out the man's mistress, the woman he killed his wife for. It had all happened long ago and her husband begs her to drop the whole thing, but she insists on going on. Aided by an old friend, Arnold Cottle, her pursuit turns to obsession. Little does she know the true story of Rupert Moore and his lover.
Episode 8
A Dark Blue Perfume
60 mins
After living abroad for many years, Mark Roberts returns to his home town of Manchester. He's something of a recluse who apparently has little interest in socializing with anyone in the community. A few months after his arrival he forms a friendship with a neighbor, the recently widowed Liz. For her, the affair is a liberating experience but she can't bring Mark out of his shell. A local busybody decides to find out more about him and finds that he once tried to kill his fiancée and spent 8 years in jail as a result. In fact, Mark is haunted by the incident and can't bring himself to visit the woman h tried to kill. In fact, he keeps seeing her on the street, just as he remembered her a those years ago. Urged on by Liz, he finally goes to see the woman, with tragic results.