Kissing the Gunner's Daughter is a 1992 novel[1] by the British mystery writer Ruth Rendell, featuring the recurring character Inspector Reg Wexford.

[2] The title of the book refers to historical corporal punishment in the Royal Navy where a sailor kissing the gunner's daughter was lashed to a cannon to receive a flogging.

The three dead are a successful, respected writer, Davina Flory, her younger second husband and her only daughter, a middle-aged divorcée.

Wexford is summoned from an uncomfortable family dinner to attend the crime scene, becomes fascinated by Daisy, towards whom he adopts a protective attitude, as he attempts to solve the murders.

[2] Entertainment Weekly praised the novel's analysis of class politics in Britain, but found the plot and its denouement both obvious and far-fetched.