The author of the Inspector Wexford books, and also of intense psychological thrillers under the name Barbara Vine, died Saturday at age 85 several months after a serious stroke. Crime writer Val McDermid: “The broad church that is current British crime writing owes much to a writer who over a 50-year career consistently demonstrated that the genre can continually reinvent itself, moving in new directions, assuming new concerns and exploring new ways of telling stories.”