SOURCE: Review of Jack of Diamonds, by Elizabeth Spencer. Publisher's Weekly 233, no. 22 (3 June 1988): 70.

In the following review, the critic offers a laudable assessment of Jack of Diamonds.

Of the five outstanding stories in this new collection [Jack of Diamonds] by a master of the genre, at least three qualify as classics. All are beautifully honed, animated by distinctive characters and deeply expressive of the mysterious forces that bring individuals together and of the secrets at the heart of people's lives. Ella Mason, the narrator of the beautifully paced, emotionally charged The Cousins, reminisces about a pivotal summer when she and four of her close-knit Southern kin traveled in Europe. Unconsciously in love with both her “brilliant, princely, cavalier” cousins Ben and Eric, Ella's sexual awakening by one of them irrevocably changes the relationships among them all. “The Business Venture,” also reflecting a Southern sensibility, concerns a group of...