A stranger lures a child into his car with the promise of sweets. A young man spots his fiancée’s double in a public park of ill repute. An executive visits the secluded home of a former employee whose intentions are frightfully unclear. A modest soul weds the woman he rescues from suicide—only to fall victim to an unfathomable form of possessiveness... In the eleven tales gathered in The Fallen Curtain, Ruth Rendell—the grande dame of the literary mystery—lays bare the twisted inner workings of the unbalanced mind. Here are eleven tales of haunting psychological accuracy: the gesture that betrays a parent's madness, the childhood memory clouded with denial, the utterance that introduces the threat of violence in a situation as benign as a dinner date. Instantly engaging, maddeningly addictive, The Fallen Curtain testifies to the enduring talents of a master of the genre.