Review by Booklist Review
The late Highsmith, best known for her 21 suspense novels, including Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, dubbed "the poet of apprehension" by Graham Greene, also wrote a considerable number of short stories: twisted fables, minimysteries, excursions into calmly diabolical characters, written in her unsettlingly dispassionate voice. This volume brings together in one volume Highsmith's five previously published short story collections: The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder; Little Tales of Misogyny; Slowly, Slowly in the Wind; The Black House; and Mermaids on the Golf Course. A foreword by Greene is also reprinted here. There has been a strong revival of interest in Highsmith since the success of the recent movie based on The Talented Mr. Ripley. This volume will be useful for libraries where the individual collections are no longer available and readers are again clamoring for the author. That said, however, there is little in the way of editorial enhancement here to recommend the book on its own. --Connie Fletcher
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In his foreword to this big posthumous collection, the late Graham Greene deemed the inimitable crime novelist Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley; Strangers on a Train) "the poet of apprehension." Although the short story doesn't allow Texas-born expatriate Highsmith to take menace to the creepy heights achieved in her novels, this volume shows the range and depth of her misanthropy. Divided into sections that sort the cruelty of humans into different guises, the stories range from the abuse and neglect of innocent animals and children (Highsmith demonstrates a tenderness toward innocents that balances and highlights her dark world view) to the stupidity or deadly self-indulgence of different characters including a man who spends his entire life writing novels in his head. The evil that Highsmith probes can be subtle. In "The Network," for example, a middle-aged woman in Manhattan serves as the den mother of city dwellers cleaving together out of a common fear of the dangers of New York. The woman is shown busily spinning a web of fear and bad feeling under the guise of doing good. Other stories are at the opposite end of the subtlety scale. In "Slowly, Slowly in the Wind," a hotheaded tycoon marches inexorably toward a crime laid out in the first pages with the beautiful precision of a place setting by Martha Stewart. As with the productions of that gifted hostess, the thrill here is in the unexpected flourishes. In every story, Highsmith demonstrates her brilliant and inimitable talent for making even the coldest characters galvanizing. Entertaining enough for the beach, this collection should be compulsory for students of the psychological thriller. (Aug.) Forecast: Hefty enough to daunt casual film-influenced readers, this collection will thrill hardcore fans, and should backlist well. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Five years after her death, Highsmith finally has it made: not only was the film of The Talented Mr. Ripley a success, but more films based on her works are forthcoming, as are two biographies. This would have been real news to Highsmith, Texas-born but long a resident of Switzerland, who never had much success here with her 21 novels even after two were made into Hitchcock films. This selection launches a series that will return Highsmith to U.S. readers. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
This massive tome reprints five of the seven complete collections of short stories by Highsmith (1921-95), together with a brief introduction by Graham Greene excerpted from a sixth. Little Tales of Misogyny (1974) identifies and coldly condemns such types as "The Coquette" and "The Breeder"; The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder (1975) presents animals turning on their human companions; and the remaining volumes-Slowly, Slowly in the Wind (1979), The Black House (1981), and Mermaids on the Golf Course (1985) show the pioneering novelist of psychological suspense in equally remorseless form, anatomizing the kinds of human frailty that can as easily erupt in murder as in murderous resentment.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
