Publisher's Synopsis
"Her mesmerising capacity to shock, chill and disturb is unmatched." THE TIMES "Rendell at her unflinching, disturbing best." BOOKLIST In this seventh collection of Ruth Rendell's short stories, the 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. There is one book 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.
