"What is striking about these stories is their integrity: they are all of a piece; they grow, with that tensed-spring inevitability of the unfolding rose observed by elapsed-time photography; together they are a brilliant collection." --The Sunday Times (London)"The mood of nagging apprehension is consistent, skillfully underplayed so that just the right amount of chill is induced with an economy of means." --J. R. Frankes, The New York Times Book Review"Highsmith is the poet of apprehension rather than fear. . . . In her short stories Highsmith naturally has to adopt a different method. She is after the quick kill rather than the slow encirclement of the reader, and how admirably and with what field-craft she hunts us down." --Graham Greene"Highsmith's genius is in presenting fantasy's paradox: successes are not what they seem . . . Where in the traditional fairy tale the heroine turns the toad into a prince, in Highsmith's fable the prince becomes a toad--success is nearly always fatal. . . . Combining the best features of the suspense genre with the best of existential fiction--a reflection--the stories are fabulous, in all senses of that word." --Paul Theroux"A brilliant collection." --"The Sunday Times" (UK)"One of the truly brilliant short-story writers of the 20th century." --Otto Penzler"She's sui generis, a writer of almost occult power."--Richard Rayner, "Los Angeles Times"
