About Second Nature

SECOND NATURE
Joyce Carol Oates
September 2026
ISBN: 978-1-83541-546-7
Cover art by Claudia Caranfa

A SECOND VOLUME OF
PSUEDONYMOUS 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 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."

Two complete novels and two never-before-collected short stories—appearing in one curated volume for the first time ever
The second of three double volumes from Hard Case Crime to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the author’s once-secret suspense-writing second identity, "Rosamond Smith"
Joyce Carol Oates is one of the most acclaimed authors of the past century, a National Book Award winner and six-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

Raves for JOYCE CAROL OATES...

"A brilliant writer."

— Time

"Simply the most consistently inventive, brilliant, curious, and creative writer going."

— Gillian Flynn

"Oates dissects the predator-prey dynamic with merciless precision."

— The Seattle Times

"Oates is a genius in the truest sense of the word."

— Rebecca Makkai