A review by camerontrost
Blood Lines: Long and Short Stories by Ruth Rendell

4.0

Blood Lines is not Ruth Rendell's strongest collection overall (I would recommend starting with The Fallen Curtain, The Fever Tree, and Piranha to Scurfy) but it includes a number of excellent works of short fiction. Shreds and Slivers, Burning End, and In All Honesty demonstrate Rendell's incredible ability to create characters that are quirky but mundane at the same time. The neurotic lady in the latter is a prime example. What makes her writing more remarkable though - and this can be seen in many of the stories in this collection - is how she plays with criminal intent and uncontrollable circumstance in a way that leaves you wondering whether you have just witnessed a cleverly planned murder or a freak accident.