The propulsive classic thriller from the
bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley and Carol‘The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense‘ MARK BILLINGHAM
‘A gem . . . A magnificent suspense’ DAILY MAIL
The psychologists would call it folie a deux . . .
‘Bruno slammed his palms together. “Hey! Cheeses, what an idea! I kill your wife and you kill my father! We meet on a train, see, and nobody knows we know each other! Perfect alibis! Catch?”’
Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno are passengers on the same train. Haines is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno a mysterious smooth-talker with a sadistic proposal: he’ll murder Haines’s wife if Haines will murder Bruno’s father. As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy finds himself trapped in Highsmith’s perilous world, where, under the right circumstances, ordinary people are capable of extraordinary crimes. From this moment, almost against his conscious will, he is trapped in a nightmare of shared guilt and an insidious merging of personalities.
‘Her books have stylistic texture, psychological depth, mesmeric readability’ SUNDAY TIMES
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Reviews
I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is
The No.1 Greatest Crime Writer . . . A true original in crime fiction and a superb writer
A writer who created a world of her own - a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger
One closes most of her books with a feeling that the world is more dangerous than one had ever imagined
The sphere of suspense for the story of a strange, parasitic attachment and the unbelievable events which follow
A tightly-plotted psychological thriller that serves as a masterclass in how it's done
Two women become entangled in a gothic exit strategy from unhappy marriages
Highsmith is a giant of the genre. The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense
To call Patricia Highsmith a thriller writer is true but not the whole truth: her books have stylistic texture, psychological depth, mesmeric readability
A gem . . . A magnificent suspense
Her novels, with their mysterious non sequiturs, weird pairings and attractions and moments of stifled comedy, have an unearthly sheen all their own . . . Highsmith was a genuine one-off, and her books will haunt you
