Synopsis
Here, from top international mystery writer Ruth Rendell, are nine new stories—one starring the astute Inspector Wexford—that turn a microscope on the tortuous pathways of the human mind and the merciless twists of fate. Poetic justice overtakes a cocksure young thief from the public library... a dying man's wife exacts a subtle revenge when he begs to see his long-lost mistress...A perpetual failure discovers his solitary talent-homicide...The accidental death of the queenly cat Melusina locks her killer into the strange life of an old lady and her feline hierarchy...A girl's acquiescence in murder boomerangs again and again.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Ruth Rendell is the recipient of several awards, including three Edgars and four Gold Daggers from the UK’s Crime Writers’ Association. Simisola, Blood Lines, Keys to the Street, and The Brimstone Wedding (written as Barbara Vine) are available from Brilliance Audio. She lives in England.
From Kirkus Reviews
Nine new short stories from the prolific, impressive Rendell- -but an underpar batch this time, with no top-notch entries and quite a few clinkers. Many of the pieces here begin seductively, with an arresting Rendell character-sketch or psychological situation, only to peter out disappointingly. ``Paperwork'' has a fine gothic setup--girl raised by cold grandparents in a great manse--that goes nowhere. The title story, about a writer's snobbish attitude toward a cleaning-woman, shifts awkwardly from subtle insight to unconvincing melodrama. Two items--the Maugham-manqu‚ ``Dying Happy,'' the Roald Dahl-ish ``The Fish-Sitter''--are barely more than anecdotes. Only two stories offer solid, if obvious, suspense: the creepy ``Mother's Help,'' about a straying husband's homicidal use of his precocious children; and ``An Unwanted Woman,'' in which Wexford and Burden (Rendell's regular sleuths) investigate the suicide of a lonely widow who had recently befriended a teenage runaway. Lesser work from a major talent; readable but unpersuasive. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
