A Spot of Folly: Ten and a Quarter New Tales of Murder and Mayhem

Drawn from the darker corners of Ruth Rendell's imagination, this collection gathers ten short crime stories alongside a bonus fragment, each one a tightly wound study in human weakness, self-deception, and the violence that ordinary life can conceal. Co-presented with Sophie Hannah, the tales range from domestic betrayal to haunted country houses, from compulsive liars undone by their own impulses to kidnappings with hidden layers. Rendell's signature psychological precision is on full display: no story wastes a word, and the turns arrive with quiet inevitability.

Five narrators bring the collection to life, with Jonathan Keeble, Toby Longworth, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Gemma Whelan, and Hattie Morahan each lending a distinct register to different stories. The rotating cast suits the anthology format well, preventing listener fatigue across six-plus hours while matching tone to material. Whelan and Morahan handle the more claustrophobic domestic pieces with particular sharpness, and the ensemble approach underscores the collection's central theme: that menace wears many different faces.