Book description
'I think you know who killed your stepfather', said Wexford, and so
begins this scintillating collection of long and short stories by the
world's best living crime writer, Ruth Rendell.
It was clear both to Wexford and Burden that Tom Peterlee was not
killed for £360, but various people would have liked them to believe
the lie. It is a case which reminds the Chief Inspector that there is
only a thin line dividing the policeman from the criminal. The
criminal impulse may be present in the most routine or intimate
situation.
The book ends with The Strawberry Tree, a disturbingly
evocative novella-length tale of lost innocence, set on the island of
Majorca. It is a triumphant conclusion to a collection of horror
stories that linger in the mind.
Ruth Rendell is the Queen of British crime writing. The author of
over 50 novels, she has won many significant crime fiction awards. Her
first novel, From Doon With Death, appeared in 1964, and since
then her reputation and readership have grown steadily with each new
book.
She has received major awards for her work; three Edgars from the
Mystery Writers of America; the Crime Writers' Gold Dagger Award for
1976's best crime novel, A Demon in My View; the Arts Council
National Book Award for Genre Fiction in 1981 for The Lake of
Darkness; the Crime Writer's Gold Dagger Award for 1986's best
crime book for Live Flesh; in 1987 the Crime Writer's Gold
Dagger Award for A Fatal Inversion and in 1991 the same award
for King Solomon's Carpet, both written under the pseudonym
Barbara Vine; the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990; and in
1991 the Crime Writer's Cartier Diamond Award for outstanding
contribution to the crime fiction genre.
Her books are translated into 21 languages. In 1996 she was awarded
the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.
