ISBN 0-7043-4280-4 (UK pbk)

Introduction by Sarah Lefanu;

"After the Days of Dead-Eye 'Dee" by Pat Cadigan
(originally published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine , May 1985),

"The Pond" by Pat Cadigan
(also contained in the anthology Fears edited by Charles L.Grant, 1983... also contained in the collection Dirty Work by Pat Cadigan, 1993),

"In the Shop" by Pat Cadigan,

"Johnny Come Home" by Pat Cadigan
(published in Omni , June, 1991... and contained in the collection Dirty Work by Pat Cadigan, 1993),

"The Coming of the Doll" by Pat Cadigan
(originally published in Fantasy & Science Fiction , June 1981... also contained in the collection Dirty Work by Pat Cadigan, 1993),

"In the Dark" by Pat Cadigan
(originally published in the anthology When the Music's Over edited by Lewis Shiner, 1991... also contained in the collection Dirty Work by Pat Cadigan, 1993);

"Letters from Home" by Karen Joy Fowler,

"Lily Red" by Karen Joy Fowler,

"Contention" by Karen Joy Fowler,

"The Faithful Companion at Forty" by Karen Joy Fowler,

"Duplicity" by Karen Joy Fowler,

"Lieserl" by Karen Joy Fowler;

"His Vegetable Wife" by Pat Murphy,

"On a Hot Summer's Night in a Place Far Away" by Pat Murphy,

"Dead Men on TV" by Pat Murphy
(included in the final ballot for the 1988 Nebula Award for Best Short Story),

"Prescience" by Pat Murphy,

"Clay Devils" by Pat Murphy,

"In the Abode of the Snows" by Pat Murphy.

"Eighteen 'tales of the unexpected' from three award-winning American authors: some frightening, some humorous, all startingly original.

"In Pat Cadigan's 'The Pond', a mother is terrified that her five-year-old daughter will be drowned, as was her cousin when they were children. But it is not her daughter who will die...

"Karen Joy Fowler writes of the shifting nature of relationships, between father and daughter in 'Lieserl', between Tonto and the Lone Ranger in 'The Faithful Companion at Forty', between women friends in 'Duplicity'.

"Pat Murphy shows an abused wife's sweet revenge in 'His Vegetable Wife' and sex as the cure for father-obsession in 'Dead Men on TV'." [jacket blurb, UK pbk, 1991]

"A good collection by three of the best". --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 1995).

Recommended.