By Horror Haunted

He was smiling, and covered in blood - face, hands, pyjamas - everything and in his hands - thrust towards her like a birthday gift - was Julie's teddy-bear, soaked and dripping with blood.

This collection of spine-chilling Gothic miniatures from Celia Fremlin ('Britain's Patricia Highsmith' - Sunday Times) is a showcase of macabre domesticity: controlling husbands rub shoulders with manipulative wives, parasitic visitors meet fatal accidents, there are nervous breakdowns, toxic relationships, sinister villagers and mob justice.

With an unerring nail, Fremlin picks the scabs concealing domestic fault lines.