A Spot of Folly: Ten and a Quarter New Tales of Murder and Mayhem

Description

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."

About the author

Edgar Award-winning author Ruth Rendell (1930-2015) has written more than seventy books that have sold more than 20 million copies worldwide. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (London), she is the recipient of the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Crime Writers' Association. Rendell's award-winning novels include A Demon in My View (1976), A Dark-Adapted Eye (1987), and King Solomon's Carpet (1991). Her popular crime stories featuring Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford were adapted into a long-running British television series (1987-2000) starring George Baker.