Deception

'The cruellest lies are often told in silence ...' Why do we lie? Why do we deceive those we love most? What do we fear revealing? A man takes part in a very unusual bet, a wife serves up a dish that utterly baffles the police, a game of cards between two couples is the basis for some shocking deceit . . . Deception highlights a domestic familiarity always on the edge of something much, much darker. In these ten tales of deception master storyteller Roald Dahl explores our tireless efforts to hide the truth about ourselves. Collected together for the first time, stories include My Lady Love, My Dove, Mildenhall Treasure, The Parson's Pleasure, Henry Sugar, The Umbrella Man, The Bookseller, Vengeance is Mine Inc., Lamb to the Slaughter and Mr Botibol Man from the South. Dahl understood our deepest secrets, desires and fears and Deception is one of four books - the rest being Lust, Cruelty and Madness - that explore our hidden selves. ‘He finds the child in the adult and the adult in the child and, with a little smile, he sticks the knife in both’ – Anthony Horowitz