As a young housewife with two lively daughters and an endlessly crying baby battles domestic chaos, she must also contend with growing suspicions of the household's new lodger. Are Louise's fears the product of sleep deprivation, as her unsympathetic husband suggests, or is there really something sinister about the respectable schoolmistress who just moved in? This Edgar Award-winning 1958 thriller earned Britain's Celia Fremlin (1914-2009) comparisons to Patricia Highsmith for her ability to transform everyday events and settings into the extraordinary, evoking an atmosphere of sheer terror.

"Fremlin is a major mistress of insight and suspense."—NYTimes