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Pena suspensa by Patricia Highsmith
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Pena suspensa (original 1965; edition 1988)

by Patricia Highsmith

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5151047,005 (3.79)23
A major new reissue of the work of a classic noir novelist.
Member:Jlebre
Title:Pena suspensa
Authors:Patricia Highsmith
Info:Lisboa, Edições 70
Collections:Your library, Alibi
Rating:
Tags:mystery, D-7

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A Suspension of Mercy by Patricia Highsmith (1965)

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» See also 23 mentions

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Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
Another fantastic Highsmith yarn. Not quite as negative as others I have read, I was reminded of Agatha Christie at times. Youngish American man and brit woman married and living in the English country side. She's an artist and he is a writer. In fact he is working on a tv drama to be called The Whip- about a smart criminal who gets away with a variety of crimes. He must imagine lots of creative crimes. He comes to imagine how he would kill his wife. The couple fights and she disappears for 2 months and therefore his imaginings (of killing wife) come back to haunt him/ make all suspicious of him. I love the way she tells the story of the writer and one must imagine that she (Highsmith, the author) is part of that imagination. A subtle, entrancing story. ( )
  apende | Jul 12, 2022 |
This is the 5th novel I've read by Highsmith. I usually think of her as the 4th of the 4 mystery/crime-fiction writers that I've read that i think are truly great. The hierarchy having been generally: Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy, & Patricia Highsmith. Now, having read this, Highmsith's position in the hierarchy is less clearly in last place. This was amazing. All of the bks I've read by her so far have involved psychologically perceptive ensarings in subtly twisted minds. All have been painful. This one was probably the most subtle yet. 2 fairly ordinary people, a married couple, have some minor quirks. Their bad decisions follow one after the other in believable ways that're related to their quirks. Things cd go one way or the other - almost all the way to the end. But the bad decisions eventually lead to a tragedy that's even more tragic b/c of its sheer stupid unnecessariness. Highsmith is fantastic at sucking the reader into a world of little things that accumulate into big things. Reading her bks is like watching a horror movie where a character is obviously about to do something stupidly fatal - the viewer sits there thinking: "Don't do that you idiot! The killer'll get you then!" But Highsmith's far more subtle & perceptive than any horror filmmaker whose work I've ever experienced. She's so damned good that I'll probably read more by her EVEN THOUGH THE STORIES ARE SO DEPRESSING. ( )
  tENTATIVELY | Apr 3, 2022 |
Now Alicia is gone, it's feeling a lot like Gone Girl. I wonder if this book influenced that one. ( )
  Bookmarque | Sep 3, 2020 |
Der Schriftsteller Sydney und seine Frau Alicia führen eine schwierige Ehe. Manchmal stellt sich Sydney vor, wie es wäre, Alicia umzubringen. Dieser Gedanke regt seine Phantasie an, und Sydney beginnt eine Geschichte zu schreiben, in der er den Mord an Alicia minutiös schildert. Als Alicia aber tatsächlich verschwindet, ist Sydney plötzlich in Teufels Küche...
  Fredo68 | May 14, 2020 |
Sydney is a struggling writer, and Alicia, his wife of two years, is a painter who also happens to have a small private income that supports them both as they try to establish themselves professionally. When Alicia decides to take a break from the marriage by spending some time incognito in Brighton, Sydney takes the opportunity to work out how it would feel to be a murderer, pretending to have killed Alicia and buried her in a rolled-up carpet which his neighbour saw him carry away. Unfortunately for Sydney, his play-acting is a bit too believable, and soon the police are looking into this suspicious behaviour…. I like Patricia Highsmith generally, as she always has interesting plots and characters. Writing in the mid-20th Century, sometimes the situations feel quite outdated, but that’s certainly not her fault. However, in this book I just couldn’t believe that neither Sydney nor Alicia would come forward with the truth once the rumours of “murder” turned up in the national press; it was just too absurd for me. Sigh. ( )
1 vote thefirstalicat | Mar 1, 2018 |
Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (3 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Patricia Highsmithprimary authorall editionscalculated
Schenkar, JoanIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Uhde, AnneTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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detebe (20174)
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The land around Sydney and Alicia Bartleby's two-storey cottage was flat, like most Suffolk country.
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Also published in English as The Story Teller
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A major new reissue of the work of a classic noir novelist.

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W.W. Norton

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