Reviews

In 1964, the author Patricia Highsmith was living in the Suffolk countryside and writing. Jill Dawson has taken this as her starting point to concoct a crime novel which is entirely reminiscent of Highsmith's own stories. It's a clever literary device and it's well executed. You don't need to be familiar with Highsmith's writing to enjoy this, but you will enjoy it far more if you are.

Patricia Highsmith is probably best known for the stories that became films (The Talented Mr Ripley, Ripley's Game, Carol) and also for writing the screenplay of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. Her characters are unsettling: good people disappoint, everyone has a streak of evil. I was familiar with her writing but I knew little about her as an individual - for example, she had an obsession with snails. It's fascinating to read the author's acknowledgments at the end about the different strands of Highsmith's life and writing that inspired this novel.

The plot of The Crime Writer (somewhat ironical given that Highsmith hated to be described in that way), concerns her relationship with two women. There is Sam, her elegant and unhappily married lover, and there is Ginny, a pushy yet evasive young journalist who comes to interview her. When a murder is committed, it will impact on all of their lives.

I really liked the writing in this book and I thought that the plot was very clever, but it also felt very disjointed. The crime felt almost secondary and I wanted it to have more focus. Ultimately I just found this a little dragged out and lacking momentum.

johndiconsiglio's review against another edition

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3.0

A disorienting novel in which real-life, don’t-call-her-a-crime-writer Patricia Highsmith finds herself in a drama worthy of her own books. The Talented Mr. Ripley author retreats to an English cottage to write & await her married lover. Complications arise (the lover’s husband, a nosey journalist). Violence ensues. Suddenly switches from 3rd to a hallucinatory 1st person. Is this the book “Pat” is writing? Her own teetering psyche? A bigger Highsmith fan than I can probably tell truth from fiction, but maybe not reality from fantasy. Slow to start, picks up nicely.

deerling's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Interesting and beautifully written fiction book about Patricia Highsmith. The ending felt a bit too surreal for me.

izzie2024's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.0

j3mm4's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I'm surprised by how enjoyable I found this book because it was a totally random pick that I then let stew in my library renewals stack for a good six months or so before giving it a shot. I had completely forgotten that it was a kind of fictionalized biography or piece of biographic fiction, which is so hit or miss, especially when the voice is as recognizable not only as Patricia Highsmith's but as the assumptions we denizens of the 21st century make about the collective voice of the mid-20th century's populace based on film and archival footage and newspapers and, yes, novels. Luckily, not only is the voice believably era-appropriate and at least clockably inspired by Highsmith's enough to pass, but the forgetting made my entry into this novel much more enjoyable; in losing track of its connection to the real world, I was able to make my way through the first few dozen pages without ever getting the sense that it was anything but pure fiction, so realizing that it was a fictionalized account of a fictional Patricia Highsmith was more of an exciting surprise than an irritating conceit I had to grapple my way into. Then, as we get into the actual plot, the stalker she's fled, the lover whose abusive husband she murders and who takes that murder as just cause to leave her, the second murder - I would eat it with a spoon. It's so evocatively and viscerally feeling without being overly gooey in its prose. The pacing isn't perfect, but I still gobbled it up in about two sittings, and it was only split up like that because of work. It's good enough that I almost want to explore more of Dawson's writing, but also the goodness is so specific that I fear I wouldn't enjoy anything else anywhere near as much because it wouldn't be what this is, even if it is something which exists in some similar stylistic or craft ways.

lola425's review against another edition

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4.0

Really enjoyed this book, but then I am a sucker for stories that mix truths and fictions. I a not generally a reader of crime fiction or even suspense fiction unless it has some literary elements, but I could not put this book down. Patricia Highsmith, the character in this book, is so compelling. She is an introvert, a loner, the books marinating inside her head making her question her own motives, her own capacity for evil, while at the same time she is interesting and seductive, both drawing people to her and pushing them away. Also examines who, exactly, is capable of evil and why. Was the fact that Patricia (the character, not the real-life author) could so easily slip into the fantasy of murdering anyone who she deemed as a threat or a betrayal a function of the years she spent writing those types of characters or is the impulse integral to who she is and the fiction only serves to sublimate the aggression she feels? In addition to being a taut psychological examination of a character, it also a pleasure to see glimpses of the real Patricia Highsmith's style of writing in the narrative. I love The Price of Salt and The Talented Mr. Riley and there are shades of each of these here. I would recommend to people who like suspense with a literary bent. There are crime novel tropes here, but they don't feel done to death.

mazza57's review against another edition

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2.0

Its like Bobby Ewing"s shower in Dallas ever so slightly confusing and unbelievable. fact, Fiction and Fantasy are interwoven here and leave me totally bemused as to what is actually happening and what is maybe an invention of a deranged mind (either the author's or the character's). there were parts of this book where i actually found i was enjoying it but then either boredom ser in or the whole premise simply annoyed me. I am not sure what gets this the high ratings it has received but whatever it was simply passed me by

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