Six stories with one long story, ‘The Shark’, anchoring the group.
All have elements of mystery and suspense, some a touch of the supernatural. In the opening, ‘One Winter’s Afternoon’, a distinguished G.P. confronts his past life while making an outcall to a deserted cottage. In ‘The Willing Flesh’ a rich woman confined to a wheelchair commissions a portrait painter to create for her on canvas an ideal mate, with unforeseen and disastrous consequences. In ‘The Shark’, a young idealistic teacher begins her first job in a decaying country town and finds herself caught up in a sinister web of power…
‘(Swinbourne) demonstrates a rare confidence with language that makes for compelling reading.’
– The Weekend Australian
‘Even the shorter stories quickly create an atmosphere of foreboding and menace.’
– The Sydney Morning Herald