Strangers on a train

Strangers on a Train, her first novel, is probably Patricia Highsmith's most famous work, and certainly the most popular. Of course, it was turned into a brilliant film by the legendary Alfred Hitchock in 1951.Throughout her career, Highsmith (though born in Fort Worth, Texas, she moved to New York with her parents when she was just six years old) brought a keen literary eye and a genius for plumbing the psychopathic mind to more than thirty works of fiction, unparalleled in their placid deviousness and sardonic humour. With deadpan accuracy, she delighted in creating true sociopaths in the guise of the everyday man or woman. With Strangers on a Train, Highsmith revels in eliciting the unsettling psychological forces that lurk beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life. Try also The Talented Mr Ripley.