Celestial Timepiece

See also: Recently published stories, essays, poems, and other articles by Joyce Carol Oates.

Double Trouble

An omnibus by Joyce Carol Oates
Publication date: February 23, 2026

A 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.

This omnibus includes:

• STARR BRIGHT WILL BE WITH YOU SOON: Exotic dancer who moonlights as a serial killer of men who mistreat her travels across the country to hole up with her straitlaced twin sister and elude the law.
• “The Murderess”: Teen girl’s ambivalent relationship to older female relative who killed her husband.
• SOUL/MATE: Handsome young male serial killer falls for older woman and starts killing to further her interests.
• “An Unsolved Crime”: Old man remembers killing stepfather who abused his sister when they were children.

The Frenzy: Stories

A short story collection by Joyce Carol Oates
Publication date: June 16, 2026

Frenzy (noun): a temporary madness; a violent mental or emotional agitation; intense usually wild and often disorderly compulsive or agitated activity

Joyce Carol Oates is a master of the short story and one of the legends of the form. Her collections of short fiction have twice been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and have won numerous awards, including the O. Henry Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Art of the Short Story. In The Frenzy: Stories, Oates plunges us into the lives of her characters at moments of crisis and confusion, when much of what they understand about themselves and those they love comes undone.

A young woman on a supposedly romantic weekend trip to Cape May, New Jersey, turns the tables on her older, married lover. A freak bicycle accident on a bridge haunts one family for decades. A girl jealous of her popular cousin discovers she is the lucky one. A widow waits at her riverside house for her dead husband’s return. A young man hiking in the woods comes upon a couple in a heated, possibly violent argument—should he intervene?

Suspenseful and psychologically astute, Oates’s short stories enthrall and captivate as they dissect her character’s deepest fears—revealing our own in turn. “Literature is a texture of words,” says Oates of her short fiction, “evoking life in the most vivid ways—psychologically, physically.” These new stories blazingly evoke life at its most vivid and perilous, when fate and free will intersect, and one ominous encounter or bad choice can be the difference between an ordinary day and the point of no return.

Second Nature

An omnibus by Joyce Carol Oates
Publication date: September 22, 2026

Obsession and depravity shatter suburban life and academia in this compelling double dose of psychological suspense, pairing two complete novels and two rare short stories, from six-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Joyce Carol Oates. Perfect for readers of Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, and Donna Tartt.

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.A model suburban husband grows obsessed with a beautiful stranger in DOUBLE DELIGHT, while an eminent professor preys on a vulnerable student in NEMESIS – and the echoes continue in the rare short stories “A Girl Worth Twenty Million” and “First Death.”

This omnibus includes:

• A model suburban husband grows obsessed with a beautiful stranger in DOUBLE DELIGHT
• while an eminent professor preys on a vulnerable student in NEMESIS
• and the echoes continue in the rare short stories “A Girl Worth Twenty Million” and “First Death.”

If you’re in the NYC area:  Joyce Carol Oates will appear in person at Barnes & Noble Union Square on Feb 2 at 6pm in conversation about Double Trouble and Second Nature with Jonathan Santlofer.  Get tickets here.

Image by Alicia A.L.