'If I really don't like somebody, I kill him . . . You remember Malcolm McRae, don't you?'

Vic and Melinda Van Allen seem to be the perfect couple, but appearances are deceptive. There is no love left in their marriage, only jealousy, and Melinda takes pleasure in flaunting her affairs. When one of her lovers is murdered, Vic hints that he was responsible. As fiction and reality start to converge, it's only a matter of time before Vic really does have blood on his hands.

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to New York when she was six. In her senior year, she edited the college magazine, having decided at the age of sixteen to become a writer. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), was made into a classic film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The Talented Mr Ripley (1955), introduced the fascinating anti-hero Tom Ripley, and was made into an Oscar-winning film in 1999 by Anthony Minghella. Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland, in February 1995. Her last novel, Small g: A Summer Idyll, was published posthumously, the same year.