Breathing Just a Little

I've read two extremely good crime / mystery fiction titles in the past week - one is a short story collection, and one is the third book in a great series. I would heartily recommend both, albeit for quite different reasons! Having previously only read Rendell's Inspector Wexford novels, which I enjoyed but didn't consider rave-worthy, I came to this short story collection with a solid respect for her craft as a writer but no very big expectations.  I was delighted to be, on the whole, surprised by the depth, power and complexity of many of these stories. Naturally, not every one is a hit (I've yet to read a collection with no variation in quality), but the best ones are incredible, and will stay with me a long time. Rendell combines mystery / puzzle staples with supernatural elements (in two, arguably three, stories), social commentary including a scathing take on misogyny and its many and various faces (in at least half of them) and psychological thriller-style tensi...