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Piranha to Scurfy and Other Stories

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Piranha to Scurfy and Other Stories

By: Ruth Rendell
Narrated by: Lindsay Duncan
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Summary

A collection of nine beautifully crafted, terrifying and intriguing tales of spine-tingling psychological terror and suspense from Ruth Rendell.The title story, is about a man whose life, in a sense, is a book. Life for Ambrose Ribbon is lonely, paranoid and obsessive without his mother, yet there is one book that he associates particularly with her: Volume VIII of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Piranha to Scurfy'. It marked a very significant moment in their relationship. But now that she is gone, Ambrose is left to spend his days reading and critiquing novels and writing vicious letters to their authors, pointing out these errors of fact and usage. No one can blame him, this is after all what his mother taught him. Then, one day he comes upon a book that attacks him.

©2000 Kingsmarkham Enterprises Ltd (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Anthologies & Short Stories Crime Fiction Mystery Short Stories Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Crime Exciting
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Critic reviews

"Multiple Edgar and Gold Dagger award winner Rendell displays her mastery of spine-tingling suspense in her first short story collection since Blood Lines." (Publishers Weekly)
"These short fictions showcase Ruth Rendell's many gifts, among them the ability to evoke a mood and trap a reader in the deepest recesses of a character's psyche." (Amazon.com review)
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I am not a great fan of the genre but really enjoyed this collection of stories.
A variety of lengths and topics and all beautifully narrated by the fabulous Lindsay Duncan.

Enjoyable collection of stories

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Clever working of a number of themes to do with utopian ideas of life. A pleasure to read.

Fascinating

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I read this collection of short stories many years ago and it was a delight to revisit them. Lindsay Duncan’s narration is superb, If only other narrators on the Audible list were up to her standard.

Excellent

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Ruth R really was multi talented. Her short stories are mostly exquisite although the longer one went on a bit. I enjoyed the gentle narration very easy to listen to soporific at times!

Rather Roald Dahl like thrillers

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See below for time stamps for each story - something I'm sure we all agree Audible should be doing for us. In the meantime, I hope the below assists other listeners.
Good anthology, definitely recommend. Some stories are better than others, and some don't have "endings" - the story is just a description of a series of events. If you go into this expecting just that, then you won't be disappointed.

CHAPTER 1 - CHAPTER 3 - 2:19:03 (of full title)
Piranha to Scurfy (novella)

CHAPTER 3 - 2:19:03
Computer Seance

CHAPTER 3 - 2:32:21
Fair Exchange

CHAPTER 3 - 2:44:45
The Wink (TW sexual assault)

CHAPTER 3 - 3:02:02
Catamount

CHAPTER 4 - 3:22:33
Walter's Leg

CHAPTER 4 - 3:43:02
The Professional

CHAPTER 4 - 4:04:30
The Beach Butler

CHAPTER 5 - 4:30:36
The Astronomical Scarf

CHAPTER 5 - 4:52:14
High Mysterious Union (novella)

CHAPTER 8 - 8:17:56
Myth

Time stamps for each story

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