Strangers on a Train: A Virago Modern Classic
Feb 2014 · Hachette UK
3.6star
12 reviewsreport
Ebook
352
Pages
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About this ebook
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
'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
Ratings and reviews
3.6
12 reviews
Stephen Kershaw
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July 25, 2017
Highsmith's first published novel highly interesting given her subsequent output, containing many of the features of her later work. A confident prose style with an equally confident human imagination obviously relying on an obsessive self observation. I reckon that one either likes or dislikes Highsmith. Personally, I sympathise with her belief that many, if not most, people are actually amoral. You must be the judge.
8 people found this review helpful
María del Carmen Jave Luján
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April 2, 2021
Intense, haunting yet provocative and obscure. And experience worth taking.
5 people found this review helpful
About the author
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.
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