Expectations / Lizzie's Lover / Shreds and Slivers / The Carer / Unacceptable Levels (Storycuts)
  • Published: 17 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9781448108848
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 28

Expectations / Lizzie's Lover / Shreds and Slivers / The Carer / Unacceptable Levels (Storycuts)

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Five short stories from the world's best living crime writer and author of bestselling psychological thrillers, including Thirteen Steps Down: A man who has married his wife for money is murdered but his wife feels only relief; one man takes his poetry far, far too seriously; strange obsessions wreak unexpected havoc; a house sitter snooping for love letters unexpectedly finds a dead woman; and a smoker can't quit smoking, nor can he quit scratching his mosquito bites.

In 'Expectations', when George, a seemingly virtuous, well-born and well-educated man, is murdered, his wife reflects on their life together. She married George for love despite knowing he only wanted her fortune. Now he is dead, she no longer has to resemble the psychologically disturbed Miss Haversham.

In 'Lizzie's Lover' a poetically-minded man woos his lover with quotes of verse. He is so obsessed with poetry that he determines to bring the words to life, regardless of the fatal consequences.

In 'Shreds and Slivers' an aggrieved man plots his deadly revenge with sinister cheer. This chilling tale will make you think twice the next time you're buying dinner.

In 'The Carer' nosy neighbour Angela looks after people's houses when they're away. Sometimes she likes to go through their possessions, searching their drawers to uncover their secrets... Until she uncovers a real life skeleton in a closet.

In 'Unacceptable Levels' a smoker has tried, and failed, to quit. When he's outside, he smokes to keep the mosquitoes away. When he gets mosquito bites, he can't sleep so he smokes some more, caught in a vicious psychological cycle.

Part of the Storycuts series, these five short stories were previously published in Blood Lines, a collection of murder mysteries and crimes thrillers.
  • Published: 17 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9781448108848
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 28
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About the author

Ruth Rendell

Ruth Rendell was an exceptional crime writer, and will be remembered as a legend in her own lifetime. Her groundbreaking debut novel, From Doon With Death, was first published in 1964 and introduced the reader to her enduring and popular detective, Inspector Reginald Wexford, who went on to feature in twenty-four of her subsequent novels.

With worldwide sales of approximately 20 million copies, Rendell was a regular Sunday Times bestseller. Her sixty bestselling novels include police procedurals, some of which have been successfully adapted for TV, stand-alone psychological mysteries, and a third strand of crime novels under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Very much abreast of her times, the Wexford books in particular often engaged with social or political issues close to her heart.

Rendell won numerous awards, including the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger for 1976’s best crime novel with A Demon in My View, a Gold Dagger award for Live Flesh in 1986, and the Sunday Times Literary Award in 1990. In 2013 she was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for sustained excellence in crime writing. In 1996 she was awarded the CBE and in 1997 became a Life Peer.

Ruth Rendell died in May 2015. Her final novel, Dark Corners, was published in October 2015.

portrait photo of Ruth Rendell

Also by Ruth Rendell

The Ruth Rendell BBC Radio Drama Collection
Dark Corners
The Girl Next Door
Archie and Archie
No Man's Nightingale
The Saint Zita Society
Computer Seance / Fair Exchange (Storycuts)
See all

Praise for Expectations / Lizzie's Lover / Shreds and Slivers / The Carer / Unacceptable Levels (Storycuts)

Rendell is unrivalled at depicting psychologically warped people and at creating unease through the simplest things. This is another triumph

Observer

There are quite a few Ruth Rendells: the doyenne of the traditional English detective novel; the queen of the psychological thriller; the celebrated author of the literary thriller

Mail on Sunday

The reigning queen of crime fiction

Time Out

Ruth Rendell has quite simply transformed the genre of crime writing. She displays her peerless skill in blending the mundane, commonplace aspects of life with the potent murky impulses of desire and greed, obsession and fear

Sunday Times

Probably the greatest living crime writer in the world

Ian Rankin
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