The creepy universes that flow from Highsmith's imagination are usually based in the everyday lives of ordinary people, and so it is with "People Who Knock on the Door." A small-town family is shattered when some members are born-again; there is a sense of danger and alienation not unlike "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Every age seems ripe for a parable about the self-righteous and the damage they do -- so this 1983 novel is compelling no matter when you read it.