In 1964, the eccentric American novelist Patricia Highsmith is hiding out in a cottage in Suffolk to concentrate on her writing and escape her fans. She has another motive too - a secret romance with a married lover based in London. But her lover keeps failing to visit, a stalker seems to be on her trail and after a young woman claiming to be a journalist comes to interview her, events take a catastrophic turn. Or do they? As ever in Highsmith's troubled life, perhaps matters are not quite as they first appear . . .
Masterfully recreating Highsmith's fantasies of murder and madness, Jill Dawson probes the darkest reaches of the human imagination in this novel - at once a brilliant portrait of a writer and an atmospheric, emotionally charged, riveting tale.
Jill Dawson is the author of eight novels, including Fred and Edie, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize, The Great Lover and, most recently, The Tell-Tale Heart. An award-winning poet, she has also edited six anthologies of poetry and short stories.
www.jilldawson.co.uk