1/1/2023 0 Comments Ruth price murder![]() ![]() Published under Rendell’s pseudonym “Barbara Vine”. A worthy aim – but the simplistic, Enid Blytonish style makes it a chore for experienced readers.Ī newly-wed couple’s lives are ruined as past and present merge, in this atmospheric ghost story with a Sapphire & Steel ambience. Published as a novella in 2006, it was originally written for Quick Reads, “to encourage adults who don’t read or find reading difficult,to discover the joy of books”. Obsessive thief Polly steals the suitcase of a man who bullied her on a plane – and gets into hot water. The longest story – and the least engaging. A comic story, set near Kingsmarkham – but no Wexford. ![]() Hedda Hardy – loud, overbearing – wears the pants in her marriage, so her henpecked husband decides to get rid of her. A ghost story with a difference: the house isn’t haunted, the house seems to be the one doing the haunting. Does he have plans for wife number three? The Haunting of Shawley Rectory (1979) His first wife drowned while boating, leaving him her money. Michael Dashwood suspects his schoolfriend Digby Ambeach is a murderer. This is the best story in the collection: a little gem – with a killer twist, and those misdirecting sentences of which Rendell, like Christie, had the knack. “I murdered Brenda Goring for what I suppose is the most unusual of motives,” the narrator tells us. What’s he to do when his fourth wife is kidnapped and held to ransom? You’ll probably guess the twist. Rich, much-married Daniel Derbyshire falls in love with his first wife, Joy. Sandy Vaughan has more on his mind than business when he attends a conference in Paris. James (“He woke up frightened, and reached for the matches, and the matches were put into his hand”). Rendell’s vying with Hemingway (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn”) and M.R. Never Sleep in a Bed Facing a Mirror (1997)Ī neat little ghost story – in three lines. They’re neat, deftly constructed, and perfectly formed many have the “GOTCHA!” bite of an Agatha Christie, coupled with the irony of Roald Dahl. Rendell was one of the all-time great mystery short story writers hell, I’d even drop “mystery”. ![]() Hauntings, possession, and Aztec sacrifice – plus the more standard murder, deceit, and deception – are here in the last collection of Ruth Rendell’s short stories. ![]()
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