The Copper Peacock and Other Stories

Here, from top international mystery writer Ruth Rendell, are nine new stories--one starring the astute Inspector Wexford--that turn a microscope on the tortuous pathways of the human mind and the merciless twists of fate.Poetic justice overtakes a cocksure young thief from the public library... a dying man's wife exacts a subtle revenge when he begs to see his long-lost mistress...A perpetual failure discovers his solitary talent-homicide...The accidental death of the queenly cat Melusina locks her killer into the strange life of an old lady and her feline hierarchy...A girl's acquiescence in murder boomerangs again and again.