The Fallen Curtain: Stories

A stranger lures a child into his car with the promise of sweets. A young man spots his fiancee'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.