Deep Water

I've read the Ripley books, her book on writing mystery and suspense novels, which I found excellent, and just recently read Deep Water and found it absolutely hynotic. Highsmith was a marvelous storyteller, understated and brilliant! Just ordered her bio A Beautiful Shadow by Andrew Wilson, looking forward to it. Chill Waters

This is classic dark, hilarious, truly scary Patricia Highsmith. Almost as good as the Ripley books, which are so good that they're in a class of their own. Definitely worth reading.

This is Patricia Highsmith at her best: a very good page turner, beautifuly written, with great characters and a very good plot. It starts right away and keeps the suspens on until 3 pages before the end of the book. What is not enough said is that Patricia Highsmith was a great writer, and nobody wrote better thrillers in her time. This is a masterpiece outside of the Ripleyiad, but pretty close to it. Enjoy!

Another brilliant story of bottled up emotions, of a protagonist who seems to be free of passion, seemingly has no sexual urges, takes insult with apparent lack of interest, and yet slowly builds up the pressure until he erupts. Vic, the typically Highsmithian hero, is almost too good to be true, as a father, as a friend, as a neigbour, as an employer, as a professional. And then of course he isn't all that good. We might have guessed. We have a hard time understanding his patience with his wife. We never quite understand how he can play along for years. The plot starter is quite original: Vic's wife is outrageously unfaithful, but he is not yet known to be in the least jealous; surprisingly, he starts a rumour that he killed a former lover of his wife's. This is for a time quite effective in scaring away new suitors. Then, in a way unfortunately, the real killer gets caught. Vic has lost some of his status in the neighbourhood, and then he crosses the step from fantasy to reality. In order to rebuild the mystery surrounding him? One wishes him well, hopes he will get away with it. That is the main driver of considerable suspense in this masterpiece. One of her best.

I'm happy that this -- one of Patricia Highsmith's finest novels -- is back in print, because it deserves to be read.The set-up is that Vic and Melinda are unhappily married, but rather than divorce, since they have a daughter, he lets her go off and have affairs (this seems quite an interesting concept to have proposed in 1957, when this book came out) -- and you'd think that surely, a little jealousy might come in on his part, right? Right. . . . And from here, it goes off in some interesting directions. I really didn't expect the ending. And now that it's finally available, go ahead and get it! You're missing a great novel otherwise.