A dark collection from one of America's literary giants.

A young wife is home alone when the phone rings in 'So Help Me God.' Is the strange voice flirting with her from the other end of the line her jealous husband laying a trap, or a stranger who knows entirely too much about her? In 'Madison at Guignol' an unhappy fashionista discovers a secret door inside her favourite clothing store and insists the staff let her enter. But even her fevered imagination cannot anticipate the horror they have been hiding from her. In these and other gripping and disturbing tales, women are confronted by the evil around them and surprised by the evil they find within themselves.

With wicked insight, Joyce Carol Oates demonstrates why the females of the species - be they six-year-old girls, seemingly devoted wives, or aging mothers - are by nature more deadly than the males.

"“Chilling, but irresistible.” Dublin Evening Herald" - Dublin Evening Herald

"Oates excels at detailing the complexities of the female psyche, especially at times of crisis … there is nothing ordinary about the way she writes.” Glasgow Sunday Herald" - Glasgow Sunday Herald

"“This fine collection proves as incisive and moving as her longer fiction”. Scotland on Sunday" - Scotland on Sunday