Product Description

Robert Forester didn't look like the kind of man to be a prowler. His ex-wife had told the police he was erratic, liable to violence, had evenfired a gun at her. Maybe he was psychopathic murderer...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #179038 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From the Back Cover
‘The basic nightmare situation – to be accused of a crime you did not commit and be unable to prove your innocence – is the subject of The Cry of the Owl… It’s Kafka with a vengeance…compulsive’ Spectator

Robert Forester didn’t look like the kind of man to be a prowler. His ex-wife had told the police he was erratic, liable to violence, had even fired a gun at her.

Maybe he was a psychopathic murderer…

‘A rare talent, a remarkable novelist…her books are written in elegant and lucid press’ John Mortimer

About the Author
Patricia Highsmith was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1921 but moved to New York when she was six. In her senior year she edited the college magazine, having decided to become a writer at the age of sixteen. Her first novel Strangers on a Train was made into a famous film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. Patricia Highsmith died in Locarno, Switzerland in 1995. Her last novel Small g: A Summer Idyll was published posthumously just over a month later

Customer Reviews

A tale From the Dark Side
This dark tale is expertly told by Highsmith. Robert Forester appears to live a very unremarkable & quite boring life. He works in an office, drinks a little too much and has developed a worrying habit of watching a mysterious young woman going about her household chores..... Whilst this is clearly far from "normal", Highsmith quickly reassures you that he poses no real threat. All seems strangely innocuous until the spy & the spied upon finally meet.
Highsmith introduces us to a gallery of odd and unpleasant characters, although it is impossible not to feel empathy with the main character. Whilst there are no direct references to the era, the book has the cosy aura of 1950's/60's America.
This book is deliciosly dark and absolutely un- put downable, I raged at the central characters' weakness (especially when it came to his revolting, toxic ex wife), and felt a little deflated that the ending wasn't nicely rounded off. These however are minor quibbles, this is a must read & will leave you wanting to devour much more of her work!

Gripping thriller
Genuinely unputdownable, though dated, thriller about a man who is accused of a crime he hasn't committed. This bleak story is exciting, sparsely written, and convincing.

The Talented Ms Highsmith
I read this 1962 novel by Patricia Highsmith over a weekend, and found her at the top of her form. It's a fascinating portrayal of the tragedy and misery that results when four damaged people - couples, or ex-couples - collide in life. Highsmith's credentials in keeping us interested are amply displayed in the first three pages. On page one, we find the main character being invited by a colleague to his and his wife's wedding anniversary dinner. What story lies behind that? But we never find out, as by page two Highsmith has moved on to the protagonist himself, telling us about his hatred of dusk falling: "like a black sea creeping over the earth. In winter ... it came with frightening swiftness ... It was like sudden death." And on page three, we discover that his main pastime these days, once night has fallen, is to prowl around a young girl's house, watching her through the kitchen window...

From this Highsmith expertly conjures a tale of sex and murder with no sex and even less murder. The characters are almost all unsympathetic, and yet I felt for them in their turmoil, at the least expected moments. There are several rank implausibilities peppered through the plot, but they can't detract from Highsmith's brilliant control of the suspense that dragged me willingly 250 pages to the end in just over a day, and the payoff is both dramatic and thrilling, to the very last ambiguous sentence. This, then, is the good - the great - face of crime writing.