Patricia Highsmith

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When you read othe crime writers, you feel the world is full of evil people. When you read Patricia Highsmith, you feel like you might be a little evil.

Patricia Highsmith didn't write mysteries; she wrote investigations of the human psyche. In her best books, Strangers On A Train and the Ripley series, it's not the facts of the case that are important, but the corrupting secret desires hidden beneath a veneer of civility. Tom Ripley is secretly a psychopath, willing to do what it takes to get what he wants, but he doesn't want money or power; he wants to be accepted. In Strangers On A Train, Bruno Anthony wants to exchange more than murders with Guy Haines - he'd like to exchange places with him.

Highsmith frequently depicts love as sickness, not surprising considering she was a lesbian in an age that simply didn't permit open homosexuality. Her characters often delude themselves as well, and act on their delusions as if the are reality.

A native of Fort Worth, Texas (of all places), Highsmith lived much of her life in Europe, where her work found more success than in the states. During the 50s she had a brief relationship with writer Marijane Meaker, better known as Gold Medal crime author Vin Packer.