From Publishers Weekly
The title story in Rendell's latest collection was awarded an MWA Edgar, adding to the honors awarded her by American and British critics. These 11 short mysteries, like the author's novels, are intricate and controlled, written with an understatement that magnifies their effects. "The Convolvulus Clock" at a craft exhibit has been sold, but Trixie must have the pretty thing. An elderly and relentlessly moral woman, Trixie gives in to temptation and steals the clock, thereby setting off a chain of disasters. The other 10 tales also involve unremarkable people who stray from the straight and narrow and get into extraordinary trouble. Adulterous lovers pay a cruel price for their sin in "The Orchard Walls." Irrational fears of losing his children drive a father to criminal observance of "Father's Day." Each entry is an example of Rendell's incomparable story-telling gifts. February
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
YA A collection of 11 short gems by a master of suspense. Rendell's stories quickly shift from an innocuous beginning to quirky action and a horrible finale. The commonplace English settings provide contrast for the author's far-from-ordinary characters. For example, a young actor, encouraged by his mother, spends increasing amounts of time dressed in a wolf costume, to his fiancee's misfortune. In another story, a man returns to England after many years abroad, still obsessed with his wife's desertion 40 years earlier. He approaches her home and glimpses a woman who appears not to have aged, and a chilling ending is in store. Another character, an elderly lady, is fond of saying that her friends are beginning to ``go funny''; readers are about to see how ``funny'' she herself has become. Finely crafted and literate, these tales, like Rendell's full-length novels, belong in every mystery collection. Rita G. Keeler, St. John's School, Houston
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
