Strangers on a Train - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0349007276 ISBN 13: 9780349007274

Publisher: Virago

Synopsis

CLASSIC THRILLER BEHIND THE HITCHCOCK FILM AND HIGHSMITH''S FIRST NOVEL

By the bestselling author of The Talented Mr Ripley and Carol

''Her books have stylistic texture, psychological depth, mesmeric readability'' SUNDAY TIMES

''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.

About this title

About the Author

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to New York when she was six, where she attended the Julia Richman High School and Barnard College. In her senior year she edited the college magazine, having decided at the age of sixteen to become a writer. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, was made into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The Talented Mr Ripley, published in 1955, introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1999 by Anthony Minghella. Graham Greene called Patricia Highsmith 'the poet of apprehension', saying that she 'created a world of her own - a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger' and The Times named her no.1 in their list of the greatest ever crime writers. Patricia Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel, Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously, the same year.

Review

A tightly-plotted psychological thriller that serves as a masterclass in how it's done -- S. J. Watson A tightly-plotted psychological thriller that serves as a masterclass in how it's done -- S. J. Watson

Edition details

• Publisher: Virago
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0349007276
• ISBN 13: 9780349007274
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256