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 favorite 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. For four decades, Oates has rendered razor-sharp tales of marginalized lives. This latest collection, showcasing her work in crime--related stories (several of which have landed in best-of-the-year anthologies), is no exception. From adulterers to murderers, the women portrayed in these pages possess a killer combination of venom and vice. In "The Haunting," a mother reinvents herself after her husband's suspicious death. Mysterious late-night phone calls prompt an unhappy young wife to seek vengeance on her volatile mate in "So Help Me God." But not all of Oates' feral females are focused on men. In "Madison at Guignol," a pack of vindictive salesgirls gives a haughty fashionista a deadly dressing-down in a dark, delirious tale that will make even casual shoppers shiver. The young also succumb to sinister behaviors. In "The Banshee," a precocious six-year-old girl uses her baby brother as bait to gain the attention of a neglectful mother. Oates' prose is luminous, but some readers might find her femmes a bit too fatale. Allison Block Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved JOYCE CAROL OATES is the recipient of the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction and the winner of the National Book Award. Among her major works are We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde, and The Falls. She lives in New Jersey.
