Reading - Piranha To Scurfy and other stories

Piranha To Scurfy and other stories by Ruth Rendell



In the scary title tale, a solitary, arrogant, self-appointed fault-finder is haunted by memories of his dead mother, the mind of a lonely man whose inability to please his mother makes him vulnerable to self destruction.
Mythology and fairy tales come to life in "High Mysterious Union," a novella in which a man's increasing obsession with a young woman places him under a spell that almost leads to his death. Irony plays a strong role in most of the nine tales here.
In "Walter's Leg," the title character learns that people don't change, even over a lifetime.
In "The Professional" is about a young man who thinks he witnesses a murder, talks himself out of it, then too late realizes he was right.
In "Fair Exchange," a man's doubts about a healer who helps his sick wife are his undoing.