SOURCE: "Behind the Curtain," in The Saturday Review, New York, Vol. XLII, No. 45, November 7, 1959, p. 23.

In the following review of The Breaking Point, Hurley commends du Maurier's talent as a suspense and horror writer, noting particularly her ability to create realistic settings and believable characters.

Daphne du Maurier's collection of short stories The Breaking Point leaves no doubt as to the author's talent as a crackerjack raconteuse. Each selection is a masterpiece—sometimes of suspense, chicanery, insidious evil, in other instances of sensitivity and perception, as in the case of "The Pool," a heartrending story about the brink of adolescence. She takes the reader by the icy hand and leads him behind the curtain to view the characters on their ways to their own breaking points.

If you read a book of short stories as I do, starting at page one and proceeding in an orderly manner, you...