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Previously uncollected and unpublished: new short stories from a master of psychological suspense. Introduction from Sophie Hannah.

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New and uncollected tales of murder, mischief, magic and madness.

Ruth Rendell was an acknowledged master of psychological suspense: these are ten (and a quarter) of her most chillingly compelling short stories, collected here together for the first time.

In these tales, a businessman boasts about cheating on his wife, only to find the tables turned. A beautiful country rectory reverberates to the echo of a historical murder. A compulsive liar acts on impulse, only to be lead inexorably to disaster. And a wealthy man finds there is more to his wife´s kidnapping than meets the eye.

Atmospheric, gripping and never predictable, this is Ruth Rendell at her inimitable best.

The stories are: Never Sleep in a Bed Facing a Mirror; A Spot of Folly; The Price of Joy; The Irony of Hate; Digby´s Wives; The Haunting of Shawley Rectory; A Drop Too Much; The Thief; The Long Corridor of Time; In the Time of his Prosperity; and Trebuchet.

Introduction from Sophie Hannah.

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A literary phenomenon. Guardian

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Sophie Hannah is that rare thing: an acclaimed and best-selling poet. Her first book was greeted with amazement. The Poetry Review declared, ´Shall I put it in capitals? SOPHIE HANNAH IS A GENIUS.´ Each subsequent collection has been informally more inventive, thematically more complex, yet each has met with a similar welcome. Her latest book, ´First of the Last Chances´, was published in 2003.

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