Nothing that Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith: A Virago Modern Classic (Virago Modern Classics Book 188)

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley, Carol and Strangers on a Train

'These tales should not be glanced at by those with even the slightest history of poor mental health . . . Highsmith's dark humour oozes through this new collection like a particularly delicious poison' Andrew Wilson, Independent on Sunday

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.

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.