read any good books lately...

I'm in a crime fiction class and after reading Cain, Hammett and Chandler, we're onto this:

It seems like everyone's reading a lot of crime fiction around this time of the year.

What do people recommend that I read next? I've got either Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith or A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe up next on my GoodReads list. The latter is much shorter, but being from the 19th century I wager it might be a harder read because it reflects a very different lifestyle and social structure than we live in now.

As you can guess, I've decided to read way more novels by female authors this year after realizing last that I read very few works of fiction written by women at all which is a bit strange.

Yeah, she seems to be the "grey zone" between Knut Hamsun/Albert Camus-esque existentialism and James M. Cain-inspired pulp crime fiction. I also get the impression when reading about Highsmith that she lived an extremely interesting life, and was a very fascinating personality.

As announced, this weekend I've started reading...


This is apparently one of Highsmith's less well known books, but I wanted to read a stand-alone before deciding whether the Ripley series is worth pursuing. The plot follows two interweaving stories: The first follows an American businessman and his wife, who while vacationing in Greece are arrested under suspicion of fraud back home, then end up accidentally killing the police officer while resisting arrest; the second follows a third American expatriate in Greece, a washed-up lawyer who needs to get home to the States and sees an opportunity to raise the money when he by coincidence witnesses the aforementioned murder, offering the couple the option to escape if he gets them fake passports.

I like the in-depth description of the Greek setting, as well as how it's very difficult to identify any heroes and villains or even protagonist/antagonist pattern. The plot actually reminds me a lot of David Goodis' The Wounded and the Slain which came out 10 years prior, but I much prefer Highsmith's take on the similar premise already since she's way better at plot structure as well as observing the "show don't tell" rule.

On a related note, I find it really annoying when book cover art puts the author's name in bigger text than the title. I know it's self-explanatory and makes a lot of business sense with authors popular enough to be brand names in themselves, but still...

HOLY sh*t AUSTIN IS GOING TO REEEEEEEAAAAD

Enjoyed his Wolfen, interesting attempt at a realistic re-interpretation of the werewolf legend there, though I haven't read any of his alien stuff.

Toaster Mantis wrote: Enjoyed his Wolfen, interesting attempt at a realistic re-interpretation of the werewolf legend there, though I haven't read any of his alien stuff.