Highsmith, Patricia (1921–1995)

US crime novelist. Her first book, Strangers on a Train 1950, was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock. She excelled in tension and psychological exploration of character.

The Ripley series Her debut was followed by The Talented Mr Ripley 1957, the first of a series dealing with the amoral Tom Ripley, including Ripley Under Ground 1971, Ripley's Game 1974, and Ripley Under Water 1991. Highsmith's work is characterized by the skilful use of suspense, a chillingly dispassionate style shot through with dark humour, and a fascination with the intense and sexually ambiguous relationship between the central characters.

Other works Highsmith's books (not all of them strictly crime novels, but nearly all concerned the behaviour of people facing extreme situations), also include The Glass Cell 1965, The Tremor of Forgery 1969, Little Tales of Misogyny 1977, and Tales of Natural and Unnatural Catastrophes 1987. The Animal Lover's Book of Beastly Murder 1975, a collection of stories in which animals systematically murder humans, shows her macabre humour at its blackest, and reveals the contrast between her dislike of people and her deep affection for animals.

Highsmith was scornful of criticism, finding ‘the public passion for justice quite boring and artificial, for neither life nor nature cares if justice is ever done or not’. Her first concern – as she made clear in her book Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction 1966 – was to entertain, not to moralize.