The premise behind each of the sixty-four stories included in "The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith" shimmers with a menacing darkness that leaves the reader quaking with an anticipation that is, sadly, never quite fulfilled. Stories like "Woodrow Wilson's Necktie," where a young man amuses himself by killing real people and including their corpses among the exhibits at a wax museum, or "The Button," the tale of a father with a disabled child who releases his pent-up anger on a complete stranger, should deliver characters and plotlines that scare up plenty of chills and thrills. And yet, the characters are oddly flat and deflated, knocking around story structures that read more like blunt plot summaries than finely crafted short stories.

With the 1999 Anthony Minghella film adaptation of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (two new Ripley films are reportedly in development), there has been a Highsmith resurgence bubbling just below the surface of American pop culture. Add to that an impressive fifteen-book launch initiative-kicked off by "The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith"-that will reintroduce virtually all of the author's out-of-print work and Highsmith is poised to generate some serious posthumous buzz.

The secret behind Highsmith's success has always been her uncanny ability to take ordinary, everyday individuals and plop them into extraordinary circumstances that beautifully showcase humanity's dark underbelly. But the short-story form, as evidenced by the tales in this collection, doesn't agree with Highsmith's true nature as a writer: She seems to need more time and space to fully develop her dark worlds into places that readers, at least momentarily, wish to reside in.

"The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith"
by Patricia Highsmith
Norton, $27.95, 672 pages

Also by Tony Peregrin

LESSONS LEARNED
"Straight Pride" doesn't negate "Gay Pride." In fact, as far as I can tell, both statements mean everyone is getting off in whatever way feels the best—and darned proud of it too, thank you very much.
(2001-06-21)

FACE OFF
But what about where that book came from? What does it say about your fellow passenger when he pulls his literary findings out of a blue and white Borders bag as opposed to a green and white bag issued by Barnes & Noble?
(2001-05-31)

OH RIKKI
About a hundred transsexuals, cross-dressers and their friends are at the Rikki Swin Institute for a Sunday morning brunch to commemorate the grand opening of this new transgender facility -- which feels more like an after-church social than a gathering of gender benders.
(2001-03-29)

LAVENDER HAZE
Do the growing number of novels displayed under the lavender-tinged banner of "gay fiction" have what it takes to inspire that pang of emotional identification for a heterosexual readership? Or do most heterosexual readers pass by bookstore shelves marked "gay literature," with bags over their heads to avoid being compromised by a genre that many consider to be too sexual or controversial?
(2001-03-01)

GREAT SEXPECTATIONS
(2001-02-15)

COLD COMFORT
(2001-01-18)

BROTHER'S KEEPER
(2000-12-14)

GOLDEN NUGGET
(2000-12-07)

BLOODLETTING
(2000-10-19)

GAY CHICAGO
(2000-09-21)

MANIFEST "DENSITY"
(2000-09-21)

TRUTH ACHE
(2000-08-24)