The Fallen Curtain: Stories

A stranger lures a child into his car with the promise of sweets. A young man spots his fiancée'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-the grande dame of the literary mystery-lays bare the twisted inner workings of the unbalanced mind. Here are eleven tales of haunting psychological accuracy: the gesture that betrays a parent's madness, the childhood memory clouded with denial, the utterance that introduces the threat of violence in a situation as benign as a dinner date. Instantly engaging, maddeningly addictive, The Fallen Curtain testifies to the enduring talents of a master of the genre.