Mermaids on the Golf Course are among Highsmith's most mature, psychologically penetrating works. As the title story, in which a man's brush with death endows his everyday desires with tragic consequences, the warm familiarities of middle-class life becomes the eerie setting for Highsmith's chilling portrayals of violence, secrecy, and madness.

Contents:

• Mermaids on the Golf Course
• The Button
• Where the Action Is
• Chris's Last Party
• A Clock Ticks at Christmas
• A Shot from Nowhere
• The Stuff of Madness
• Not in This Life, Maybe the Next
• I Am not as Efficient as Other People
• The Cruelest Month
• The Romantic