The black house
By: Patricia Highsmith.
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 270
Subjects: Suburban life -- Fiction; Horror tales, American
Genres: Fiction.
Description: "Horrific tragedy becomes disturbingly ordinary in The Black House, a collection of short stories, written during a particularly dark time in Patricia Highsmith's life. As readers will discover, the work eerily evokes the warm familiarities of suburban life: the manicured lawns, the white picket fences, and the local pubs, each providing the backbone for her chilling portraits. Seemingly small indiscretions and infidelities - along with love affairs and murder - consume the characters that commit them. Cycles of destructive jealousy overwhelm the cheating protagonists of "Blow It" and "When in Rome," and the title story explores small-town male camaraderie and the destructive secret it masks.

This collection of eleven stories presents Highsmith at her finest: melancholy, suspenseful, and sizzling with a powerful awareness of human emotion."--Jacket.
Table of contents: title: Something the cat dragged in; title: Not one of us; title: The terrors of basket-weaving; title: Under a dark angel's eye; title: I despise your life; title: The dream of the Emma C; title: Old folks at home; title: When in Rome; title: Blow it; title: The kite; title: The black house.