Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.'Be sure you don't answer the door to anyone you don't know.'A little Patricia Highsmith, a touch of Shirley Jackson: the long-neglected Celia Fremlin wrote short, sharp stories that threw women's lives into shiver-inducing relief.In each of these twinned tales, a mother and daughter meet again, and an ordinary home becomes the setting for a return of the repressed.

Celia Fremlin (1914-2009) was born in Kent. Her first published novel of suspense was The Hours Before Dawn (1958), which went on to win the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1960. Over the next thirty-five years Fremlin published a further eighteen titles.