Customer Reviews

Blood Lines: Long and Short Stories

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Whether in a novel or a short story, Ruth Rendell's storytelling is just captivating. Her style is consistently haunting, there is depth to her characters, and there's the twist which will come at you out of nowhere. Whether you're a dedicated mystery fan or simply enjoy reading extremely skillfully put together prose, regardless of genre, Ruth Rendell is irresistible (and very addictive!).

The two longest stories in this collection are the first story, "Blood Lines," an Inspector Wexford tale of 40 pages, and the last story, "The Strawberry Tree," a somewhat strange tale which is 85 pages long. In between are 9 short stories, some of which are only 6 pages. As usual with collections, some stories are better than others. All the stories involve murder, attempted murder, or accidental death, with the exception of "Clothes," which is about a compulsive shopper. As in other English mysteries, guns do not come into play. Murders tend to be by poison or bludgeon. The author has an inventive mind when it comes to eliminating people (I would be afraid to get on her wrong side).

While some stories are very good, I had trouble getting interested in the long novelette, "The Strawberry Tree," which is written in a narrative form with only a little dialogue. The narrative starts on the island of Majorca with no real indication of why the narrator is there, then skips back 40 years to give an account of past events on Majorca, her life in between, and finally her arrival on Majorca where the story started. A mystery is introduced along the way, and a solution is finally presented. This story, like the others, was written in the 1990's, but the Spanish apparently didn't use DNA analysis.

The novelette included in this collection, "The Strawberry Tree," may well be Rendell's masterpiece, the single work that stands above all her other many fine novels and stories. It's a work of exquisite craftsmanship and deep psychological depth. I gasped at one point, laughed at another, and ended in tears. A British television adaptation (with the same title; you can find details at imbd.com) is also excellent.