From B.V. Lawson in the archives
Blood Lines
dates from 1995 and includes 10 shorter stories and one novella. Most
of the stories are familiar Rendell territory including the villages of
Kingsmarkham and Stowerton, which are the stomping grounds of Chief
Inspector Wexford and his assistant Mike Burden, featured in the initial
story. "Blood Lines" finds Wexford and Burden solving a bludgeoning
death that Wexford doggedly pursues despite the fact everyone else
thinks it's a mere robbery gone bad, in the end piecing together a
picture of infidelity, spousal abuse and betrayal.
"Lizzie's
Lover" takes a new and literal twist on a Browning poem that comes to
life; "Burning End" explores the difficult relationships between
daughter-in-law and mother-in-law and what it takes to push someone over
the edge; the accidental discovery of a poisonous mushroom in a garden
leads to a game of culinary Russian Roulette by a mad man in a
supermarket, in "Shreds and Shivers"; "Clothes" is the only story not to
deal with death but rather peers inside an unusual obsession that
drives a woman to emotional collapse.
The longest story, the
novella "The Strawberry Tree" was one of seventeen televised
feature-length adaptations of Rendell's work which aired on ITV in the
UK and on some PBS stations between 1987 and 2000, under the title Ruth Rendell Mysteries,
which Acorn Media just released in a DVD boxed set in March. It was
apparently intended as a sketch for a Barbara Vine novel, a foreboding
and atmospheric tale of lost innocence embedded in a lonely young
woman's deep desire for love and friendship on the island of Majorca.
Rendell
(and alter ego Vine) is known for her exploration of the darker human
impulses forged out of society’s moral codes: passion, jealousy,
anxiety, guilt, shame, rage are the colors she uses to paint
psychological portraits as she allows the reader to delve into the minds
of her characters. If you haven't read a Rendell novel, stories such as
these make for a fine introduction.
