The<b> No.1 Greatest Crime Writer</b>
The Times
No one has created psychological suspense more densely and <b>deliciously satisfying </b>
Vogue
I love Highsmith so much . . . <b>What a revelation her writing is</b>
- Gillian Flynn,
Highsmith writes about men like a spider writing about flies
Observer
For eliciting the menace that lurks in familiar surroundings, there's no one like Patricia Highsmith
Time
There's no thriller writer's gamesmanship in her novels, none of the reassuring trickery of professional pulp; Highsmith's style is as blunt and straightforward as a strip-search
New Yorker
For some obscure reason, <b>one of our greatest modernist writers</b>, Patricia Highsmith, has been thought of in her own land as a writer of thrillers. She is both. <b>She is certainly one of the most interesting writers of this dismal century</b>
- Gore Vidal,
Classic
USA Today
I love Highsmith so much . . . What a revelation her writing is
- Gillian Flynn,
BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY, CAROL AND STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
'The No.1 Greatest Crime Writer' THE TIMES
'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
'Ramón had done it. Obviously! He thought about Ramón, his Catholic soul trapped in his passion for Lelia. He'd find Ramón and see that he paid with his life for what he had done.'
In A Game for the Living, threads of sexual jealousy and guilt are shot through with all Patricia Highsmith's uncanny talent for the unexpected.
Ramón mends furniture. Theodore paints. A devout Catholic, Ramón lives in Mexico City, not far from where he was born into poverty. Theodore, a rich German transplanted to a country where money buys some comfort but no peace, believes in nothing at all.
You'd think the two had nothing in common. Except, of course, that both had slept with Lelia. The two were good friends, so neither minded sharing her affections. They did mind, however, when Lelia was found raped, murdered, and horribly mutilated. The two friends, suspects both, twist in a limbo of tension and doubt, each seeking his own form of solace and truth.
A thrilling, psychologically complex novel, rich with setting, A Game for the Living is Highsmith at her best.
'Ramón had done it. Obviously! He thought about Ramón, his Catholic soul trapped in his passion for Lelia. He'd find Ramón and see that he paid with his life for what he had done.'
Hot-tempered Ramón was born into poverty in Mexico City; mild-mannered Theo is a wealthy German expatriate. The two men are unlikely friends - especially as they are in love with the same woman. When Lelia is found brutally murdered, both lovers are suspects - and each suspects the other. Until they discover that a thief was seen at Lelia's apartment, and seize on the possibility that he is the murderer. Their hunt leads them on a frantic chase to sun-drenched Acapulco, and to a colonial town where Theo gets the uneasy feeling that his every move is being watched.
'Highsmith is a giant of the genre. The original, the best, the gloriously twisted Queen of Suspense' Mark Billingham
'One closes most of her books with a feeling that the world is more dangerous than one had ever imagined' Julian Symons, New York Times Book Review