Author:Ruth Rendell
The New Girl Friend was published in 1985, and the title story earned Rendell her second Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe 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 horror 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 murder mystery stories. 'Ruth Rendell remains one of the most stylish, chilling and challenging writers around.' -Tribune
Piranha to Scurfy, a collection of disturbing psychological short stories 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
Rendell knows how to make your hair stand up straight on your head
—— Maeve BinchyRendell's eerie capacity to comprehend disturbed criminal minds continues to astonish
It's impossible to read the terrors abroad in her shabby streetscapes without total emotional involvement
—— Sunday TimesDeath seems cosy compared with the living Rendell describes... each story is like a condensed, polished novel
—— Daily TelegraphRendell’s psychological novels remain in a class of their own
—— Susanna Yager, Sunday TelegraphConstantly terrifying, accomplished fiction
—— Le Monde des LivresChristophe Dufossé fuses the suspense of Stephen King with the irony and ambition of Houellebecq. A truly successful debut
—— Les InrockuptiblesDufosse's first novel is a well-paced, gripping thriller...not for the faint-hearted
—— Big IssueA writer of wit and style
—— Scotland on SundayA powerful debut
—— ArenaBruen's tightly coiled prose strikes like a piss-soaked rattler.
—— CapitalSharp, punch and unsettling, Priest is a masterpiece.
—— Peterborough Evening Telegraph... An intensely dark maelstrom ... excellent.
—— www.marymartin.com.auBruen should be valued as one of the most challenging and memorable writers in the genre at the moment.
—— www.reviewingtheevidence.com