A Spot of Folly cover art

A Spot of Folly

Ten and a Quarter New Tales of Murder and Mayhem

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A Spot of Folly

By: Ruth Rendell
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble, Toby Longworth, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Gemma Whelan, Hattie Morahan
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About this listen

Previously uncollected and unpublished: new short stories from a master of psychological suspense.

New and uncollected tales of murder, mischief, magic and madness.

Ruth Rendell was an acknowledged master of psychological suspense: these are 10 (and a quarter) of her most chillingly compelling short stories, collected here together for the first time.

In these tales, a businessman boasts about cheating on his wife, only to find the tables turned. A beautiful country rectory reverberates to the echo of a historical murder. A compulsive liar acts on impulse, only to be lead inexorably to disaster. And a wealthy man finds there is more to his wife's kidnapping than meets the eye.

Atmospheric, gripping and never predictable, this is Ruth Rendell at her inimitable best.

The stories are: 'Never Sleep in a Bed Facing a Mirror'; 'A Spot of Folly'; 'The Price of Joy'; 'The Irony of Hate'; 'Digby's Wives'; 'The Haunting of Shawley Rectory'; 'A Drop Too Much'; 'The Thief'; 'The Long Corridor of Time'; 'In the Time of his Prosperity'; and 'Trebuchet'.

©2017 Selection copyright (c) Tony Medawar (P)2017 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd Anthologies & Short Stories Crime Fiction Mystery Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime Marriage Short Story Murder

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To find the collection that contains 'Trebuchet' is a joy - it's one of the best short stories I've ever read. There's a great gathering of strange and unsettling tales here, but that one final story is worth this entire collection; the stunning, skin-crawling precision of this unthinkable event needs more than one listen. It's a masterclass in constructing a story. Fabulous.

Utterly addictive listening

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The Thief is very good and the longest one in the collection. more of a novella.

enjoyable short stories.

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A mixed bag of "short" stories, some very short others a little too long. I have always enjoyed the writing of Ruth Rendell and this was no exception however I did find them rather a mixed bag. The good ones were very good and the weaker ones were . . . . . rather weak. Rambling at times with too much information offered towards an already predictable conclusion, Also the book got of to a bad start - I do hate personality forwards particularly those that nothing to the writing beyond an "aren't they wonderful" and reflected glory "I discovered them . . .". Yucky yuck.

A work part formed

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Very enjoyable "old school" British, crime and murder stories and well read.
Well worth listening to.

Smashing!

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Lovely to have a few final stories from Ruth Rendell but they were no up there with her best works. A couple of them were slow and repetitive and the ghost stories rather weak.

Good, but not vintage Rendell

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Probably should have left these “gems” unpublished. I suspect most weren’t even finished or heavily edited by someone else as the stories were so bad. Didn’t seem like Ruth Rendell at all. I wish I could send it back but I kept skipping the stories and it was over before I knew it. Waste of a credit. The narrators were brilliant as they always are with RR. But even they could save this mess.

Disappointingly Bad

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I really liked the above story and several others, they were all well read. I did not enjoy the haunting of the newly married couple.

The Man Who Covered a Well

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As a massive fan of Ruth Rendell, I couldn’t wait to listen to these previously unpublished short stories. But what a disappointment! They were awful. Not even excellent narration could reprieve them. I think Ms Rendell had left them unpublished for a reason......

Dire

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