The female of the species : tales of mystery and suspense / Joyce Carol Oates

So help me God -- The banshee -- Doll : a romance of the Mississippi -- Madison of Guignol -- The haunting -- Hunger -- Tell me you forgive me? -- Angel of wrath -- Angel of mercy

Oates's short stories are usually dark, edgy affairs, and this collection offers more in that vein. Nine narratives all center on women flirting with death. In some, the female characters are murderers, e.g., "So Help Me God," in which Lucretia's husband, Luke, phones her when she's home alone and pretends to be someone else. Other stories are more innocent: "Banshee," for instance, tells of a little girl who takes her infant brother atop a roof for attention. Still others are devilish, e.g., "Doll: A Romance of Mississippi" is about a man who pimps his 11-year-old stepdaughter. In the haunting "Angel of Mercy," a nurse working in a terminal hospital ward plays God. Whatever the situation, Oates, with her usual clarity and precision, creates a world where danger lurks within every woman, and no one is safe.