A spine-tingling anthology by the New York Times-bestselling author
and master of "psychological insight . . . and, not infrequently,
teeth-chattering terror" (The New York Times).
These never-before-collected stories by Ruth Rendell--the three-time
Edgar Award-winning mistress of dark suspense and one of the most
celebrated thriller writers of the twentieth century--are "deliciously
riveting, all the more so because Rendell's extraordinary ability to
delve coolly and forensically into the dustiest nooks of the human
psyche is amplified, not diminished, by the short story form. . . .
Often the reader is taken by the throat" (The Guardian).
In "The Thief," a chance encounter with a stranger triggers the most
destructive impulses in a vindictive pathological liar. A family shares
an unnamable feeling of dread and a necessary denial to make it through
the night in "Trebuchet." In the title story, a caddish boor can't help
but boast of his infidelities. A historic murder weighs heavy on the
unholy reputation of a quaint local landmark in "The Haunting of Shawley
Rectory." And in "Never Sleep in a Bed Facing a Mirror," Rendell
delivers a masterstroke of gasp-inducing brevity.
Here are tales of mystery, madness, terrible crimes, and chilling
perdition, all dispatched with a wit so knife-edged and deviousness, so
impeccably cool that it's little wonder Joyce Carol Oates hails Ruth
Rendell as "one of the finest practitioners of her craft."
