New Releases by Ruth Rendell

Minty’s boyfriend, Jock, was killed in the disastrous train wreck at Paddington, shortly after he borrowed all her savings. Now he has come back to haunt her. Zillah lost her estranged husband, Jerry, in that same accident. She is not convinced he is actually dead, but for reasons of her own decides not to pursue the matter. Fiona’s fiancé, Jeff, has simply disappeared–quite inexplicably since she was supporting him in style. In her ingeniously unnerving new novel, Ruth Rendell deftly traces the connections among these women–and between them a series of vicious stabbings terrifying London. Adam and Eve and Pinch Me is a masterpiece of malice and psychological suspense.

In End in Tears, Edgar Award winning author Ruth Rendell''s Inspector Wexford has his work cut out for him: When Mavis Ambrose is killed by a falling chunk of concrete, the police have no reason to suspect mischief. However, the bludgeoning of the young and gorgeous Amber Marshalson that follows is clearly murder. In the midst of the hottest summer on record, Inspector Wexford is called in to investigate. He discovers the two cases may be linked, and that Amber was at the scene of Mavis’s death. When a third body is found, the case takes a disturbing and unexpected turn. The deeper Wexford digs, the darker the realities become, and what he finds leaves him feeling lost in a world absent of morals.

This title contains two novels by Ruth Rendell - ''The Bridesmaid'' and ''To Fear a Painted Devil''.

A deeply unsettling collection of stories that is two parts Stephen King, one part Edgar Allan Poe. "Piranha to Scurfy" is a brooding story of a solitary, middle-aged man who devotes his life to writing scathing letters to newly-published authors. He does so in memory of his dead mother, who nurtured his love of accuracy, and his fervent desire to set things right. She herself is buried in the garden, for reasons that become clear as the story comes to its surprising end. "The Wink" tells the story of a young woman, raped in a small English town, who has kept the event, and the identity of her assailant, secret for many years. During their inevitable encounters in town, the rapist has added to her humiliation by giving her a leering wink. In the end, the young woman exacts her revenge. "High Mysterious Union" is a haunting and profoundly disturbing tale of a young man who borrows his friend''s vacation home in remote, rural England to work on a literary translation. Told by his friend, after the fact, the story is full of foreboding and regret that she hadn''t warned him of her strange experiences with the insular local townspeople. These and the six other stories in this collection will keep readers transfixed.

A young girl is murdered in a cemetery. And Wexford''s doctor has prescribed no alcohol, no rich food and, above all, no police work. When a young girl''s body is found in a London cemetery and the local police, under the command of Wexford''s nephew, are baffled, Wexford decides to brave his doctor''s wrath and the condescension of the London police by doing a little investigating of his own. A compelling story of mysterious identity and untimely death, Murder Being Once Done is Rendell at her most sublime. With her Inspector Wexford novels, Ruth Rendell, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, has added layers of depth, realism and unease to the classic English mystery. For the canny, tireless, and unflappable policeman is an unblinking observer of human nature, whose study has taught him that under certain circumstances the most unlikely people are capable of the most appalling crimes.

A psychological thriller following Teddy Brex, a handsome, young autistic man who comes to the aid of Francine Hill, a beautiful young woman traumatised by the murder of her mother, and now stifled by the overprotectiveness of an obsessive stepmother; but Teddy has already committed two murders.

It was his third visit to the gloomy house on Orchard Drive. Each time, he parked in the same place. Each time, he carried a briefcase. And each time Louise North greeted him at the door. Susan Townsend was the only resident with no interest in the affair going on next door, or in the neighbourhood gossip about it. Yet it was Susan who found the bodies of the lovers, locked not in passion, but in death. And Susan whose own life would be imperilled by a monstrous crime far beyond the imaginings of the vilest tongues.

Ruth Rendell now delivers an all-new collection of long and short story mysteries.

Alan Groombridge had a fantasy. Husband to a woman he didn''t like, father of two children he had never wanted, and manager of the second smallest branch of the Anglian-Victoria bank in the country, Alan was doomed to a life of domestic boredom and tedious routine. All that saved him was one fantasy: stealing enough of the bank''s money to allow him just one year of freedom - one year in which to live a different sort of life. But one day there was no more dreaming and no more games. The Anglian-Victoria bank was robbed and both manager and cashier disappeared. ln place of the dull and dreary repetition that had once existed, there came a brutal, chilling nightmare that might never, never end.

A sleeping life :The body found under the hedge was that of a middle-aged woman, biggish and gaunt. There was nothing to give Detective Chief Inspector Wexford her address, her occupation or even her identity - let alone any clues which might lead to her killer.

Called to Tancred House, to a scene of ghastly carnage, Chief Inspector Wexford must bring his considerable detective skills to bear on a case with no witnesses, two suspects who have vanished into thin air, conflicting clues, and a kaleidoscope of motives.

When Philip Wardman''s feminine ideal, a Greek goddess, appears in the flesh as Senta Pelham, Philip thinks he has found true love. But darker forces are at work, and Senta is led to propose that Philip prove his love by committing murder.

Sir Manuel Camargue, yesterday one of the most celebrated musicians of his time, today floats face down in the lake near his sprawling English country house. The consensus is accidental death -- but Inspector Wexford knows the stench of murder most foul when he smells it. Particularly in the company of two suspects -- one, the victim''s fiancee, who is too young to be true, the other his daughter who may be no kin and even less kind . . .

A stranger lures a child into his car with the promise of sweets. A young man spots his fianc?''s double in a public park of ill repute. An executive visits the secluded home of a former employee whose intentions are frightfully unclear. A modest soul weds the woman he rescues from suicide--only to fall victim to an unfathomable form of possessiveness?. In the eleven tales gathered in The Fallen Curtain, Ruth Rendell lays bare the twisted inner workings of the unbalanced mind.

Kriminalroman.