Used book – Protected Species, Ruth Rendell

Like the rest of the residents of Kingsmarkham, Inspector Wexford is not happy to see the beautiful Framhurst Wood, a refuge for rare wildlife, disappear, threatened by the construction of a highway. But when a body is discovered there, the police investigation takes precedence over environmental protection. And when a mysterious ecological group kidnaps five people, including Wexford's wife, the case turns into a nightmare...

No cause, however noble, is safe from extremist excesses. Nor from less elevated and more concrete interests: those, for example, of the owners of a neighboring estate, whose value risks plummeting...

In her incomparable way, the author of Simisola and A Sight for Sore Eyes blends an impeccably crafted police plot with a reflection on the demons at work in our society.