Overall I really enjoyed this - witty and dark. The last story was extra creepy (made me think of Shirley Jackson) but it did drag on unnecessarily, I thought compared to the other works. ( )

Good selection of stories with a variety of characters, plots and settings. They range from the seriously scary: Fair Exchange and High Mysterious Union, to the amusing and ironic: Walter's Leg. And continue with the mediocre: The Beach Butler to the excellent and my favorites: Piranha to Scurfy, incredibly detailed and well-paced, and The Wink, a victim reclaims her life after many years in this short story, and the Professional, a young man knows it's best to keep quiet about what he saw, and the Astronomical Scarf, which tells the story of a few characters with thorough description of their lives and thoughts through an inverted type of treasure hunt.

I did wonder at times how the same author could have written all these stories, soon realizing this is Rendell's strength.

Definitely enjoyable! ( )

While I am not so much into the thriller / murder mystery genre, but having heard so much positive about the author Ruth Rendell, not least here at LT, trying a collection of short stories seemed a good way to read something by this writer.

I was pretty disappointed. The opening story rambles on without end, and the development is slow, not very convincing, and not interesting. The collection included a few other stories, some apparently too long, and some so short that I was hard to figure out what to make of it. Exit Ms Rendell. ( )

La dama inglesa del crimen y del suspense se deslumbra con estos singulares relatos, en donde se entremezclan personajes inauditos, oscuras perversiones y tendencias inconfesables. Un mundo morboso, sugerente, único, estremecedores retratos psicológicos y tramas perfectas, donde una medium que se conecta con los espíritus por Internet a un hombre que cree pisar Tierra Santa.

The title story, which opens this volume of short stories, is excellent, probably my favorite in the collection. The main character, Ambrose Ribbon, spends all his time writing letters to authors and their publishers about the terrible mistakes he find in their books, but his obsession with others’ mistakes is just one aspect of his character, and I enjoyed watching the dark portrait that author Ruth Rendell paints take shape. Rendell is great at labyrinthine plots and characters with secret obsessions and habits, and her talents are put to good use here.

The final story, “High Mysterious Union,” was probably my second favorite. This story features a remote village of people who seem not quite normal and the two outsiders who attempt to live among them. Very creepy. I also liked “The Astronomical Scarf,” which traced the travels of a scarf from one person to another. It had a few dark moments, but I mostly appreciated the cleverness of the device. “The Wink” was also pretty good, but I have to admit that I forgot all about it until I looked at the list of stories. Clearly, it didn’t make much of an impact.

The other stories didn’t impress me as much. Most were too short to draw me in. I don’t know if it was the audio format or the fact that I listen in the car and sometimes reached my destination before finishing a story that really would have benefited from being taken in all at once. I also wonder if the short format doesn’t serve Rendell’s talent as well as the full-length novel does. It’s telling that my two favorites were long enough to be classified as novellas. I don’t know if I’m just not a short story reader, or if the short story isn’t Rendell’s best medium. I’m not going to give up on short stories, but I’m sticking to Rendell’s long fiction.

See my complete review at my blog. ( )