The new collection from Ruth Rendell comprising of the bestselling short stories THE NEW GIRL FRIEND, THE COPPER PEACOCK, BLOOD LINES and PIRANHA TO SCURFY. ‘Murders sometimes seem an afterthought to Rendell’s stories: the obvious way to closure but not really necessary to compel our attention, because they are not the grisliest things on show. Death seems cosy compared with the lives she describes. You can see this in her short stories, each of which is like a condensed, polished Rendell novel.’Daily Telegraph The New Girl Friend was published in 1985, and the title story earned Rendell her second Edgar award. ‘Every tale is carefully crafted and climaxed, her feel for lurking malevolence is as assured as ever.’ The Times Then came The Copper Peacock in 1991, a collection of nine short stories in which ‘the macabre potential of blameless situations such as village fetes, aquariums and even the broom cupboard are explored to provoke maximum unease in readers.’ Sunday Times Blood Lines, first published in 1995, includes the long title story and a novella, The Strawberry Tree, as well as nine short stories. ‘Ruth Rendell remains one of the most stylish, chilling and challenging writers around.’ Tribune Piranha to Scurfy followed in 2000. ‘Horror does not shake its gory locks directly at us, but hovers on the periphery of our inner vision, hidden among the ordinary, the everyday.’ Jane Shilling, Sunday Telegraph (20050217)