by Ruth Rendell
First published 2017
A businessman brags about his extramarital affairs, certain he holds all the cards. A compulsive liar makes one reckless decision that sets disaster in motion. At Shawley Rectory, the past refuses to stay buried as echoes of an old murder disturb the peace. A wealthy husband discovers his wife's kidnapping hides layers of calculated betrayal. These eleven stories plunge readers into worlds where ordinary people harbor deadly secrets and single moments of weakness spiral into catastrophe. Rendell constructs psychological traps where characters face the brutal consequences of their choices. Each tale strips away social pretenses to reveal the violence lurking beneath civilized surfaces. The collection captures the author's gift for transforming mundane situations into studies of human darkness, where justice arrives in unexpected forms and moral reckonings prove inescapable.
Genres: short-stories, mystery, crime, psychological-thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: consequences-of-choices, unreliable-narrator
225 pages · Kindle Edition · Profile Books
Content warnings: violence