Blood Lines Author:Ruth Rendell So begins this scintillating collection of long and short stories by Ruth Rendell. It was clear to both Wexford and Burden that Tom Peterlee was not killed for £360, but various people would have liked them to think he was. . . It is a case which reminds the Chief Inspector that there is only a thin line dividing the cop from the criminal. — In ... more »the second story, poetry is the inspiration for murderous passion. In "Shreds and Slivers," the accidental discovery of Amanita phalloides (a poisonous mushroom) leads to a game of Russian Roulette in a supermarket. In all the stories, Ruth Rendell probes behind the patterns of everyday life to pinpoint the frailties, the desires and deceptions, the guilty secrets of human beings.« less