Newsweek calls this book, "A fineb& chilling charactr study." While the Chicago Tribune states, " Succeeds in taking the commonplace life of one woman during a period of twenty years, placing one everyday occurance upon another,and building to a chilling climax." "Highsmith proceeds with the slow & sure building of a master architect & impeceptibly weaves a web of intrigue from which the reader is powerless to escape." This is "A scrumptious & clearheaded novel about parents, and childen, and marriage." says the New York Review of Books.