Las andanzas de un aprovechado que vive a costa de las mujeres constituirán el punto de partida de esta historia de simulaciones, engaños y muerte. Jeff Leach, el casanova carente de escrúpulos que años atras abandonara a su esposa, sera victima de sus propias maquinaciones: para librarse de Minty, una de sus amantes, le hara creer que ha fallecido en un accidente.
The long title story is about a man whose life, in a sense, is a book. There are shelves in every room, packed with titles which Ambrose Ribbon has checked pedantically for mistakes of grammar and fact. Life for Ribbon, without his mother now, is lonely and obsessive. He still keeps her dressing table exactly as she had left it, the wardrobe door always so that her clothes can be seen inside, and her pink silk nightdress on the bed. There is one book too that he associates particularly with her - volume VIII of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Piranha to Scurfy. It marked a very significant moment in their relationship.In the other stories, Ruth Rendell deals with a variety of themes, some macabre, some vengeful, some mysterious, all precisely observed. The second novella, High Mysterious Union, explores a strange, erotic universe in a dream-like corner of rural England, and illustrates very atmospherically what range Ruth Rendell has as a writer.
Plans for a new highway that would cut through the lovely woods outside of Kingsmarkham have raised a massive local protest. The outburst turns deadly serious when a desperate group takes five hostages--including Chief Inspector Wexford's wife, Dora--and threatens to kill them. Combining high technology with his extraordinary detecting skills, Wexford and his team race to find the fanatics and their hostages. When the first body is found, Wexford's search gains a fanatical dimension itself.
