Includes suggestions for further reading, pages 353-354

A salute to the real femmes fatales of the domestic suspense genre, and the deceitful children, deranged husbands, vengeful friends, and murderous wives they unleashed. Sarah Weinman, one of today's preeminent authorities of crime fiction, brings together fourteen chilling stories by women who -- from the 1940s through the mid-1970s -- took a scalpel to contemporary society and sliced away to revel its dark essence

Heroine / Patricia Highsmith -- A nice place to stay / Nedra Tyre -- Louisa, please come home / Shirley Jackson -- Lavender lady / Barbara Callahan -- Sugar and spice / Vera Caspary -- Don't sit under the apple tree / Helen Nielsen -- Everybody needs a mink / Dorothy B. Hughes -- Purple shroud / Joyce Harrington -- Stranger in the car / Elisabeth Sanxay Holding -- Splintered Monday / Charlotte Armstrong -- Lost generation / Dorothy Salisbury Davis -- People across the canyon / Margaret Millar -- Mortmain / Miriam Allen Deford -- A case of maximum need / Celia Fremlin