Rendell's latest crime thriller in the Chief Inspector Wexford series titled "Not in the Flesh" reflects Britain's multi-cultural society, with a community of Somalis living nearby.

In the book, Rendell has Wexford's sergeant, D.S. Hannah Goldsmith, decide to marry her live-in companion, Bal Bhattacharya. Wexford was said to be sorry when Bhattacharya, a valuable police officer "in spite of lapse into puritanical behaviour and wild heroism", left the local police force to join the Met (Metropolitan police).

Indians in Britain are now being shown as more comfortably ensconced in British life. The shop on the corner of Pestle Lane and Queen Street in Kingsmarkham described by Rendell "still had the name Robinson's Chemists engraved on its window, but its proprietor was now a tall thin Asian man called (Palab) Sharma and his shop a model emporium of cleanliness, order and efficiency".

Palab Sharma's wife, Parvati Sharma, wore neither sari nor salwar kameez and veil but was smartly dressed in a white shirt, short skirt and high heels.

The favourite eating place of Rendell's detective team is the Indian restaurant called "A Passage to India", which was next door but one to the police station and there they go for some lamb biryani and chicken korma.