Found in the Street

By her hypnotic art Patricia Highsmith puts the suspense story into a toweringly high place in the hierarchy of fiction * The Times * Highsmith is a giant of the genre. The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense -- Mark Billingham To call Patricia Highsmith a thriller writer is true but not the whole truth: her books have stylistic texture, psychological depth, mesmeric readability * Sunday Times * Highsmith was every bit as deviant and quirky as her mischievous heroes, and didn't seem to mind if everyone knew it -- J. G. Ballard * Daily Telegraph * Uncomfortable, frightening, compulsive and, worst of all, terribly believable * Time Out * I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is -- Gillian Flynn No one has created psychological suspense more densely and deliciously satisfying * Vogue * One of the finest crime novelists * New York Times * An extremely clever novel . . . there is no one quite like Highsmith -- Anita Brookner Intoxicating flavor and promise * Publishers Weekly * Highsmith, a pioneer of the psychopathology thriller, is to some extent responsible for the high level of craft at work in that genre today * Kirkus Reviews * An extremely clever novel . . . there is no one quite like Highsmith -- Anita Brookner

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to New York when she was six. 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 (1950), was made into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1999 by Anthony Minghella. Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel, Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously, the same year.