Brilliantly twisted tale of obsession from Patricia Highsmith; I’ve only read a couple of the Ripleys before now and this is definitely up there as a dark classic. Told from the - rather warped - perspective of David as he maintains the fiction that a brief relationship from two years ago is just waiting to begin again (despite Annabell’e marriage); we get taken further into David’s ability to compartmentalise, lie and abuse those who are - if not his friends - then at least his closest acquaintances.

I hugely enjoyed this deep dive with a questionable narrator, Highsmith is a classic author of the “psycho we can relate to” genre…

Possible spoilers

3.5 🌟

Unbelievably this is my first Highsmith.
To be honest, I'm not sure what to make of it.
All the main characters seemed slightly unhinged.
Well, David was very unhinged.
He took obsession to a new level, but all of them came across as slightly off.
Made for an interesting read.
I enjoyed the writing, and the story, though at times felt we were just covering the same ground again.
Mostly though, it's opened up a nice back catalogue of books for me to explore, that will hopefully be as good as this one.

I have read a few of this authors works The Talented Mr Ripley being one of all time favourite books and films, so I can't come to this book without an unbiased view. That being said my biased view is more than true here, a truly masterful book and a lesson in writing mind blowing suspense and thrills, creepy and uncomfortable it will keep you reading way into the night rooting for very unlikely heroes. Absolute class act that modern writers clearly still draw on for inspiration but let this reprint be a reminder that highsmith is the Queen of sinister unsettling play with your mind slow burning thrillers