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Double Trouble
Not yet published
Expected 3 Feb 26A double dose of gripping psychological suspense, pairing two complete novels and two rare short stories, from six-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Joyce Carol Oates. Two serial killers – one female, one male – murder in the name of a higher cause. Ideal for fans of Alice Munro, Ann Patchett and Anne Tyler.
Celebrating 40 Years of pseudonymous suspense from JOYCE CAROL OATES
Four decades ago, acclaimed literary author Joyce Carol Oates penned her first novel of psychological suspense under the name "Rosamond Smith." In the Smith books, Oates explored themes of betrayal and deception, lust and murder, through stories involving twins, doubles, and hidden second identities – initially, keeping her own double identity a secret.
Hard Case Crime is proud to bring these extraordinary works of crime fiction, long unavailable in bookstores, back into print in definitive double editions, each pairing two complete novels and two never-before-collected Oates short stories, all linked thematically, to weave a sinister web filled with dark reflections.
In This Volume…
A female serial killer seeks refuge in her twin sister's home in STARR BRIGHT WILL BE WITH YOU SOON, while a male serial killer murders for the woman he craves in SOUL/MATE -- and the echoes continue in the rare short stories "The Murderess" and "An Unsolved Crime."
Celebrating 40 Years of pseudonymous suspense from JOYCE CAROL OATES
Four decades ago, acclaimed literary author Joyce Carol Oates penned her first novel of psychological suspense under the name "Rosamond Smith." In the Smith books, Oates explored themes of betrayal and deception, lust and murder, through stories involving twins, doubles, and hidden second identities – initially, keeping her own double identity a secret.
Hard Case Crime is proud to bring these extraordinary works of crime fiction, long unavailable in bookstores, back into print in definitive double editions, each pairing two complete novels and two never-before-collected Oates short stories, all linked thematically, to weave a sinister web filled with dark reflections.
In This Volume…
A female serial killer seeks refuge in her twin sister's home in STARR BRIGHT WILL BE WITH YOU SOON, while a male serial killer murders for the woman he craves in SOUL/MATE -- and the echoes continue in the rare short stories "The Murderess" and "An Unsolved Crime."
- GenresThriller
576 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication February 3, 2026
97 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Carol Oates
859 books9,691 followersJoyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 18, 2026
HUGE thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the review copy! This book releases next month, from Hard Case Crimes—and can you believe that gorgeous cover art? I’ll certainly be buying a physical copy when it releases. It’s always an honor to obtain ARCs of new releases by my favorite writer.
Though technically the tales—two novels originally published under JCO’s pseudonym Rosamond Smith and two previously-uncollected short stories—are not new, it’s nice to get a such a gorgeous release from Hard Case. And maybe this will introduce younger readers to the Rosamond Smith works! This is the first time I’ve read anything written under this pen name, and it was nice to finally get to Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon: originally punished in 1999, Starr is a crime/suspense novel with dashes of noir and I had a great time with it. It totally lived up to its reputation. What I loved was its marriage of such brutal killings and suburban normalcy—and what is the reality of a family member becoming a serial killer. This novel is worth the price of admission alone; I’m not sure if the original novel is now out of print but I hope Double Trouble helps get this one out to more readers.
Soul/Mate, the other Rosamond Smith novel collected here, falls a bit short of Starr Bright, but that’s okay. Published in 1989, this novel features a style of JCO’s writing I don’t care for as much: a style in which she often seems to get bogged down in the sentence structure, making sure every word choice has a certain flair: the prose verges into shades of purple. The narrative seems to get stuck. Still, I quite liked this one. JCO in crime mode is always immensely readable, ya know?
Of the two short stories, certainly my favorite is “An Unsolved Crime”— a little gem, really, feverish and almost hallucinatory: two abused siblings plotting the murder of their stepfather. How JCO does it I don’t know!
Story Ratings
Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon (1999): 5 🌟
“The Murderess” (previously uncollected): 4 🌟
SOUL/MATE (1989): 4 🌟
“An Unsolved Crime” (previously uncollected): 5 🌟
Though technically the tales—two novels originally published under JCO’s pseudonym Rosamond Smith and two previously-uncollected short stories—are not new, it’s nice to get a such a gorgeous release from Hard Case. And maybe this will introduce younger readers to the Rosamond Smith works! This is the first time I’ve read anything written under this pen name, and it was nice to finally get to Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon: originally punished in 1999, Starr is a crime/suspense novel with dashes of noir and I had a great time with it. It totally lived up to its reputation. What I loved was its marriage of such brutal killings and suburban normalcy—and what is the reality of a family member becoming a serial killer. This novel is worth the price of admission alone; I’m not sure if the original novel is now out of print but I hope Double Trouble helps get this one out to more readers.
Soul/Mate, the other Rosamond Smith novel collected here, falls a bit short of Starr Bright, but that’s okay. Published in 1989, this novel features a style of JCO’s writing I don’t care for as much: a style in which she often seems to get bogged down in the sentence structure, making sure every word choice has a certain flair: the prose verges into shades of purple. The narrative seems to get stuck. Still, I quite liked this one. JCO in crime mode is always immensely readable, ya know?
Of the two short stories, certainly my favorite is “An Unsolved Crime”— a little gem, really, feverish and almost hallucinatory: two abused siblings plotting the murder of their stepfather. How JCO does it I don’t know!
Story Ratings
Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon (1999): 5 🌟
“The Murderess” (previously uncollected): 4 🌟
SOUL/MATE (1989): 4 🌟
“An Unsolved Crime” (previously uncollected): 5 🌟
November 10, 2025
Hard Case Crime’s Double Trouble includes two complete novels and two short stories by Oates, all of which were originally penned under the pseudonym Rosamond Smith. Oates, in a career spanning from 1964 to 2025, penned 58 or 59 novels and numerous short story collections. Eight of her novels were published under the pen name Rosamond Smith. Characteristically atmospheric, her crime novels always have an odd oft-putting feel.
“Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon” (1999) feels a bit like Lawrence Block’s Kit Tolliver stories as both have a marauding woman wandering across the country, killing men she picks up along the way, particularly those who turn on her. But it’s a bit different in that Starr Bright has lost her mind along the way and is a bit of Charles Manson Bible-quoting pig-hating crazy with a duality of identity coming to a head when she returns home to see her sister and the now-teenage daughter she dumped off on her sister.
Written with day-glo coloring that will remind the reader a bit of Tom Wolfe writing in the “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” this novel, particularly in the beginning, has a whole swagger to it. Indeed, Starr has a swagger and an attitude all her own from her smoke-tinted designer glasses on down. “She wasn’t a girl for the harsh overexposed hours of morning or afternoon in the desert, her nocturnal soul best roused at twilight when neon lights flashed and pulsed into life.”
But Starr is not just some crazy princess in a miniskirt. For her, and Oates sets this up well, “the nightmares of childhood never end but continue beneath the surface of memory as beneath the surface of choppy murky water.” You get that Starr is broken beyond fixing despite her outer shell of glamour. Starr has a knack for picking up the wrong guys, guys who beat her without a second thought. She fights back with her blade, spilling blood everywhere and writing her signature on the walls: “DIE PIG FILTH DIE SATAN.”
Starr’s duality and shattered soul is hidden from all who meet her as it is masked under her glamour persona. A brilliant journey through her world — through her eyes.
“Soul/Mate” (1989), written ten years earlier than “Starr Bright,” is a whole different approach to serial killing.
What stands out, first of all, is how innocently Oates leads the reader into this crime fiction. It begins as a romantic story about Dorothea Deverall, widowed fourteen years earlier at 25, childless, alone, and seemingly destined to be an old maid forever. Her time occupied as being a mistress to Charles Carpenter, who would never divorce his wife, no matter how many secret dalliances he had with Dorothea. Meantime, Dorothea is constantly being set up at dinner parties.
What changes is the slight sweet young man who is Ginny Weidmann’s nephew, 27 years old, but still a wanderer with no permanent home: Colin Asch. This young gentleman has a thing for Dorothea, a thing that nothing could quench. But Colin is not necessarily the wealthy gentleman with no precise career other than art school that he appears to be. We readers quickly learn that Colin Asch has casually committed murder for no discernable reason at Florida rest stops. Meanwhile, he plays at being Colin Asch. “But he played it cool, knowing everybody likes sweet shy boys, tongue-tied boys, orphan etched into their faces.” And not since the age of 15, when he first killed, had he been linked to any of the murders.
Meanwhile, Colin is obsessed with Dorothea, spying on her like a peeping tom, sending her flowers and invitations. And eventually killing for her. Even at one point bragging about the kills to her.
The thing is that, beneath the surface, people perhaps are not always what they appear to be and are perhaps more savage, more literal, more gutteral. Surprisingly, only one character seems to recognize that Colin is way off the reservation and that he is indeed psychotic rather than the innocent young boy he pretends to be.
The Double Trouble volume also includes two poignant short stories. This reviewer was granted an advance copy of the volume which will be released shortly.
“Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon” (1999) feels a bit like Lawrence Block’s Kit Tolliver stories as both have a marauding woman wandering across the country, killing men she picks up along the way, particularly those who turn on her. But it’s a bit different in that Starr Bright has lost her mind along the way and is a bit of Charles Manson Bible-quoting pig-hating crazy with a duality of identity coming to a head when she returns home to see her sister and the now-teenage daughter she dumped off on her sister.
Written with day-glo coloring that will remind the reader a bit of Tom Wolfe writing in the “Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” this novel, particularly in the beginning, has a whole swagger to it. Indeed, Starr has a swagger and an attitude all her own from her smoke-tinted designer glasses on down. “She wasn’t a girl for the harsh overexposed hours of morning or afternoon in the desert, her nocturnal soul best roused at twilight when neon lights flashed and pulsed into life.”
But Starr is not just some crazy princess in a miniskirt. For her, and Oates sets this up well, “the nightmares of childhood never end but continue beneath the surface of memory as beneath the surface of choppy murky water.” You get that Starr is broken beyond fixing despite her outer shell of glamour. Starr has a knack for picking up the wrong guys, guys who beat her without a second thought. She fights back with her blade, spilling blood everywhere and writing her signature on the walls: “DIE PIG FILTH DIE SATAN.”
Starr’s duality and shattered soul is hidden from all who meet her as it is masked under her glamour persona. A brilliant journey through her world — through her eyes.
“Soul/Mate” (1989), written ten years earlier than “Starr Bright,” is a whole different approach to serial killing.
What stands out, first of all, is how innocently Oates leads the reader into this crime fiction. It begins as a romantic story about Dorothea Deverall, widowed fourteen years earlier at 25, childless, alone, and seemingly destined to be an old maid forever. Her time occupied as being a mistress to Charles Carpenter, who would never divorce his wife, no matter how many secret dalliances he had with Dorothea. Meantime, Dorothea is constantly being set up at dinner parties.
What changes is the slight sweet young man who is Ginny Weidmann’s nephew, 27 years old, but still a wanderer with no permanent home: Colin Asch. This young gentleman has a thing for Dorothea, a thing that nothing could quench. But Colin is not necessarily the wealthy gentleman with no precise career other than art school that he appears to be. We readers quickly learn that Colin Asch has casually committed murder for no discernable reason at Florida rest stops. Meanwhile, he plays at being Colin Asch. “But he played it cool, knowing everybody likes sweet shy boys, tongue-tied boys, orphan etched into their faces.” And not since the age of 15, when he first killed, had he been linked to any of the murders.
Meanwhile, Colin is obsessed with Dorothea, spying on her like a peeping tom, sending her flowers and invitations. And eventually killing for her. Even at one point bragging about the kills to her.
The thing is that, beneath the surface, people perhaps are not always what they appear to be and are perhaps more savage, more literal, more gutteral. Surprisingly, only one character seems to recognize that Colin is way off the reservation and that he is indeed psychotic rather than the innocent young boy he pretends to be.
The Double Trouble volume also includes two poignant short stories. This reviewer was granted an advance copy of the volume which will be released shortly.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
ARC for review. To be published February 3, 2026.
3.5 stars
A compilation of two Joyce Carol Oates novels (one of which has been on my list for awhile,) STARR BRIGHT WILL BE WITH YOU SOON and SOUL/MATE and two short stories, “The Murderers” and “An Unsolved Crime.” Reading the two novels back to back made me realize that the interior monologue of JCO’s killers is nearly always the same.
STARR BRIGHT is the story of twins Rose of Sharon and Lily of the Valley. Lily Merrick is a housewife who hasn’t seen Sharon in twenty years, since she ran off to become a model and dancer. Suddenly Sharon appears at Lily’s door one day, at loose end and “between professional engagements,” looking for a place to stay.
Sharon insinuates herself into the lives of Lily, her husband and her daughter. None of them know what/who she’s brought to their door.
The first part of the book was nothing special but watching Sharon worm her way into to lives of each Merrick was interesting. I looked up the original publication date and was a little surprised that it was published in 1998 as it reads as if set earlier, like maybe the 1980s. Maybe there’s something to indicate it was set then and I just missed it. I enjoyed this.
I had not heard of SOUL/MATE before but I really liked reading about the wonderfully drawn character of Dorothea Deverell, except maybe she was a little too perfect…I might want to stalk her too, if only to learn her secrets.
Deverell, a young widow, has a high profile, social job where she is hoping for advancement. She sees good friends socially and has been having a long term affair with an unhappily married man (OK, maybe not perfect.) One night at a dinner she meets her hostess’s odd nephew Charles Asch. He comes from a tragic background and seems to be roaming around the world with little purpose. Dorothea finds him mildly interesting, Charles finds her endlessly fascinating. Let the obsession commence!
Of special note here are the secondary characters. This is a short novel but JCO does an excellent job creating some fully realized, colorful side players who really add to one’s enjoyment of the book (even if they are also “types” often found in polite society.). Originally published 1989.
I found the two short stories to be immediately forgettable, but I liked the two novels.
3.5 stars
A compilation of two Joyce Carol Oates novels (one of which has been on my list for awhile,) STARR BRIGHT WILL BE WITH YOU SOON and SOUL/MATE and two short stories, “The Murderers” and “An Unsolved Crime.” Reading the two novels back to back made me realize that the interior monologue of JCO’s killers is nearly always the same.
STARR BRIGHT is the story of twins Rose of Sharon and Lily of the Valley. Lily Merrick is a housewife who hasn’t seen Sharon in twenty years, since she ran off to become a model and dancer. Suddenly Sharon appears at Lily’s door one day, at loose end and “between professional engagements,” looking for a place to stay.
Sharon insinuates herself into the lives of Lily, her husband and her daughter. None of them know what/who she’s brought to their door.
The first part of the book was nothing special but watching Sharon worm her way into to lives of each Merrick was interesting. I looked up the original publication date and was a little surprised that it was published in 1998 as it reads as if set earlier, like maybe the 1980s. Maybe there’s something to indicate it was set then and I just missed it. I enjoyed this.
I had not heard of SOUL/MATE before but I really liked reading about the wonderfully drawn character of Dorothea Deverell, except maybe she was a little too perfect…I might want to stalk her too, if only to learn her secrets.
Deverell, a young widow, has a high profile, social job where she is hoping for advancement. She sees good friends socially and has been having a long term affair with an unhappily married man (OK, maybe not perfect.) One night at a dinner she meets her hostess’s odd nephew Charles Asch. He comes from a tragic background and seems to be roaming around the world with little purpose. Dorothea finds him mildly interesting, Charles finds her endlessly fascinating. Let the obsession commence!
Of special note here are the secondary characters. This is a short novel but JCO does an excellent job creating some fully realized, colorful side players who really add to one’s enjoyment of the book (even if they are also “types” often found in polite society.). Originally published 1989.
I found the two short stories to be immediately forgettable, but I liked the two novels.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Oates is known for her dark themes and this one is right up there. It's two novels in a single volume and the reader is hit with dark themes right out of the box.. The first, "Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon" tells the story of a female serial killer who seeks solace by returning to her hometown in the home of her twin sister and her family.. The first half of the novel details in gruesome manner the psychological and physical experiences that lead to each killing. While the second half of the book deals with the effort of the family to come to grips with this strange person who drops into their lives. Readers who are not familiar with the Hard Case Crime imprint of bringing to light past books by authors - some unpublished - and so may be puzzled by the time setting of the story. But that doesn't spoil the tension of the tale.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The two novels included in this volume were written 25-35 years ago and released along with two short stories in this book. It is a perfect pairing of mass murderers whose personalities have a lot in common. Reading the well-developed character traits is a study of a master author at work. Not only the murderer himself/herself, but those closest to them, are portrayed so vividly that it is easy to feel the apprehension, confusion, and doubt they felt. JCO is a remarkable American treasure publishing dozens of excellent novels throughout her life.
Thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC to read and review.
Thanks to NetGalley and Titan Books for the ARC to read and review.
December 5, 2025
This collection from the great Joyce Carol Oates features 2 novels and 2 short stories, the opening novel being Starr Bright Will Be With You Soon, a very dark and disturbing tale about a female serial killer, graphic in it's prose and disturbing in its' themes. The second novel is Soul/Mate dealing with a male serial killer and then 2 short stories The Murderess and An Unsolved Crime. Oates writes challenging fiction, does not hide the darkness with a veil of sweetness, her writing demands our attention, disturbing our senses and dares us to continue reading. Not for the fainted hearted.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews