The Cry of the Owl

Kafka with a vengeance. --The Spectator (London)

Highsmith generates suspense out of a different sort of fear: not the fear of death, which drives most crime-centered entertainment, but the pettier, more intimate dread of humiliation, of being caught on the street with nothing on....There's something else here, hard to identify, pulling us along relentlessly, as thrillers do--an undertow, a surge of third-rail current. --The New Yorker

The Cry of the Owl is a deceptively easy stroll toward personal chaos and destruction. It is thoroughly chilling because nothing seems farfetched. Odd, yes, but believable. . . . The Cry of the Owl is creepy and unsettling, a taut psychological thriller. --Detroit Free Press

One of her lesser-known works ... and one of her most unsettling. Which is saying plenty. ... The crime writer Elmore Leonard has written a host of novels with the same basic plot: Plans go wrong. The story message driving all of Highsmith's work is similarly simple and clear: We live on thin ice. Highsmith revolts some readers, yet hypnotizes many others. She's sui generis, a writer of almost occult power. --Richard Rayner, Los Angeles Times

[A] sinister, moody psychological novel. ... a dreadful atmosphere of growing menace lurks over the story as its damaged, emotionally disturbed characters interact and form dangerous, obsessive relationships. This is a Highsmith tour-de-force--a must read for those who've tested Highsmith territory with the Ripley novels. The Cry of the Owl moves with precision skill to its stunning conclusion. --MostlyFiction