Nothing that Meets the Eye

BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, CAROL AND STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

''Highsmith''s dark humour oozes through this new collection like a particularly delicious poison'' ANDREW WILSON, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

''This collection showcases the almost ventriloquistic powers of a dazzling writer over nearly half a century . . . Highsmith is addictively brilliant'' JOANNA BRISCOE, GUARDIAN

''Highsmith ratchets up a furtive sense of foreboding and dread . . . This collection reminds us how skilled she was'' DAILY TELEGRAPH

This volume of stories spans almost fifty years of Highsmith''s career, allowing us to see how she evolved from a struggling freelance writer in New York to one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. They reveal her trademark dark themes, such as the married man who dates women out of secret revenge against their sex and the suicidal woman who finds that in her despair she is a sexual magnet.

The stories assembled in Nothing That Meets the Eye, written between 1938 and 1982, are vintage Highsmith: a gigolo-like psychopath preys on unfulfilled career women; a lonely spinster''s fragile hold on reality is tethered to the bottle; an estranged postal worker invents homicidal fantasies about his coworkers. While some stories anticipate the diabolical narratives of the Ripley novels, others possess a sweetness that forces us to see the author in a new light.

These are suspenseful, playful, taut and psychologically gripping stories - evidence of an extraordinary talent.