A review by j3mm4
The Crime Writer by Jill Dawson

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.