What do you think?
Rate this book
A Suspension of Mercy
Sydney Bartleby on jännityskirjailija, mutta hyviä ideoita on vaikea keksiä, kustantajat ovat penseitä eikä työ ota sujuakseen. Kun Sydneyn vaimo Alicia päättää matkustaa tuntemattomana lomalle Brightoniin, Sydneylle tarjoutuu ainutlaatuinen tilaisuus tutkia puolisonsa murhasta epäillyn miehen tuntemuksia ja ihmisten reaktioita. Leikki on jonkin aikaa hauskaa, mutta päivät muuttuvat viikoiksi eikä Alicia palaa. Viimein poliisikin kiinnostuu.... ja leikki on täyttä totta. Onko Sydney todellakin murhaaja?
Cover Image Artist/Kannen kuva: Pirkko Valtonen
Cover Image Artist/Kannen kuva: Pirkko Valtonen
273 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1965
96 people are currently reading
2352 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Highsmith
487 books5,034 followersPatricia Highsmith was an American novelist who is known mainly for her psychological crime thrillers which have led to more than two dozen film adaptations over the years.
She lived with her grandmother, mother and later step-father (her mother divorced her natural father six months before 'Patsy' was born and married Stanley Highsmith) in Fort Worth before moving with her parents to New York in 1927 but returned to live with her grandmother for a year in 1933. Returning to her parents in New York, she attended public schools in New York City and later graduated from Barnard College in 1942.
Shortly after graduation her short story 'The Heroine' was published in the Harper's Bazaar magazine and it was selected as one of the 22 best stories that appeared in American magazines in 1945 and it won the O Henry award for short stories in 1946. She continued to write short stories, many of them comic book stories, and regularly earned herself a weekly $55 pay-check. During this period of her life she lived variously in New York and Mexico.
Her first suspense novel 'Strangers on a Train' published in 1950 was an immediate success with public and critics alike. The novel has been adapted for the screen three times, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951.
In 1955 her anti-hero Tom Ripley appeared in the splendid 'The Talented Mr Ripley', a book that was awarded the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere as the best foreign mystery novel translated into French in 1957. This book, too, has been the subject of a number of film versions. Ripley appeared again in 'Ripley Under Ground' in 1970, in 'Ripley's Game' in 1974, 'The boy who Followed Ripley' in 1980 and in 'Ripley Under Water' in 1991.
Along with her acclaimed series about Ripley, she wrote 22 novels and eight short story collections plus many other short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humour. She also wrote one novel, non-mystery, under the name Claire Morgan , plus a work of non-fiction 'Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction' and a co-written book of children's verse, 'Miranda the Panda Is on the Veranda'.
She latterly lived in England and France and was more popular in England than in her native United States. Her novel 'Deep Water', 1957, was called by the Sunday Times one of the "most brilliant analyses of psychosis in America" and Julian Symons once wrote of her "Miss Highsmith is the writer who fuses character and plot most successfully ... the most important crime novelist at present in practice." In addition, Michael Dirda observed "Europeans honoured her as a psychological novelist, part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favorite writers, in particular Dostoevsky, Conrad, Kafka, Gide, and Camus."
She died of leukemia in Locarno, Switzerland on 4 February 1995 and her last novel, 'Small g: a Summer Idyll', was published posthumously a month later.
Gerry Wolstenholme
July 2010
She lived with her grandmother, mother and later step-father (her mother divorced her natural father six months before 'Patsy' was born and married Stanley Highsmith) in Fort Worth before moving with her parents to New York in 1927 but returned to live with her grandmother for a year in 1933. Returning to her parents in New York, she attended public schools in New York City and later graduated from Barnard College in 1942.
Shortly after graduation her short story 'The Heroine' was published in the Harper's Bazaar magazine and it was selected as one of the 22 best stories that appeared in American magazines in 1945 and it won the O Henry award for short stories in 1946. She continued to write short stories, many of them comic book stories, and regularly earned herself a weekly $55 pay-check. During this period of her life she lived variously in New York and Mexico.
Her first suspense novel 'Strangers on a Train' published in 1950 was an immediate success with public and critics alike. The novel has been adapted for the screen three times, most notably by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951.
In 1955 her anti-hero Tom Ripley appeared in the splendid 'The Talented Mr Ripley', a book that was awarded the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere as the best foreign mystery novel translated into French in 1957. This book, too, has been the subject of a number of film versions. Ripley appeared again in 'Ripley Under Ground' in 1970, in 'Ripley's Game' in 1974, 'The boy who Followed Ripley' in 1980 and in 'Ripley Under Water' in 1991.
Along with her acclaimed series about Ripley, she wrote 22 novels and eight short story collections plus many other short stories, often macabre, satirical or tinged with black humour. She also wrote one novel, non-mystery, under the name Claire Morgan , plus a work of non-fiction 'Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction' and a co-written book of children's verse, 'Miranda the Panda Is on the Veranda'.
She latterly lived in England and France and was more popular in England than in her native United States. Her novel 'Deep Water', 1957, was called by the Sunday Times one of the "most brilliant analyses of psychosis in America" and Julian Symons once wrote of her "Miss Highsmith is the writer who fuses character and plot most successfully ... the most important crime novelist at present in practice." In addition, Michael Dirda observed "Europeans honoured her as a psychological novelist, part of an existentialist tradition represented by her own favorite writers, in particular Dostoevsky, Conrad, Kafka, Gide, and Camus."
She died of leukemia in Locarno, Switzerland on 4 February 1995 and her last novel, 'Small g: a Summer Idyll', was published posthumously a month later.
Gerry Wolstenholme
July 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 383 reviews
August 19, 2021
Sydney thought, as he was getting ready for bed, that it was very strange to be friends with an accuser who could not prove, and someone who could prove but not accuse
A Suspension of Mercy by Patricia Highsmith is a snappy little psychological thriller and the third book I have read by this author. The first, Deep Water, Highsmith duped me into wanting to be best buddies with a raging psychopath. The second, Carol, I read with a plastic bag over my head as the author slowly introduced me to the pleasures of a suffocating experience. The third, she threw a selection of short stories at me, in a book called Little Tales of Misogyny, some of which literally blew me away.
In this one, I couldn’t quite figure out what Highsmith was playing at. The story centres around an unhappily married couple, Sydney and Alicia. Alicia goes missing. Now, the author establishes a very, very uneasy relationship between the reader and Sydney. He is an author of thrillers and has a furtive imagination. However, this manifests itself by him dreaming up all types of scenarios, crimes, alibies, methods of murder – to keep his creative juices flowing. He also dabbles with stories about Alicia and her disappearance. But, as usual, Highsmith’s trickery isn’t straight forward. Are Sydney's creative musings fantasy, or are they details of what happened to Alicia. Did he do it?
One day he’d go just a little too far and kill her. He had thought of it many times.
I was left guessing right to the last. Again, she played with me – sometimes I liked Sydney, sometimes I thought he was horrible. But most importantly he was very interesting, this guy flew very, very close the wind. In my mind he has psychopathic tendencies mixed with a delicious sprinkling of a propensity for self-destruction. Brilliant.
If you like psychological thrillers, this page-turner will not disappoint.
5 Stars
A Suspension of Mercy by Patricia Highsmith is a snappy little psychological thriller and the third book I have read by this author. The first, Deep Water, Highsmith duped me into wanting to be best buddies with a raging psychopath. The second, Carol, I read with a plastic bag over my head as the author slowly introduced me to the pleasures of a suffocating experience. The third, she threw a selection of short stories at me, in a book called Little Tales of Misogyny, some of which literally blew me away.
In this one, I couldn’t quite figure out what Highsmith was playing at. The story centres around an unhappily married couple, Sydney and Alicia. Alicia goes missing. Now, the author establishes a very, very uneasy relationship between the reader and Sydney. He is an author of thrillers and has a furtive imagination. However, this manifests itself by him dreaming up all types of scenarios, crimes, alibies, methods of murder – to keep his creative juices flowing. He also dabbles with stories about Alicia and her disappearance. But, as usual, Highsmith’s trickery isn’t straight forward. Are Sydney's creative musings fantasy, or are they details of what happened to Alicia. Did he do it?
One day he’d go just a little too far and kill her. He had thought of it many times.
I was left guessing right to the last. Again, she played with me – sometimes I liked Sydney, sometimes I thought he was horrible. But most importantly he was very interesting, this guy flew very, very close the wind. In my mind he has psychopathic tendencies mixed with a delicious sprinkling of a propensity for self-destruction. Brilliant.
If you like psychological thrillers, this page-turner will not disappoint.
5 Stars
August 10, 2023
“Preferiría no decir nada”Seguro que a más de un lector o lectora le suena familiar la frase. ¿No? ¿Y si les digo que la frase parece ser dicha a cada momento por su protagonista y que el nombre del protagonista es Bartleby, Sidney Bartleby?
Les explico. Sidney es un escritor de novelas y guiones de televisión que no pasa por sus mejores momentos profesionales y sentimentales. Su esposa, Alicia, decide alejarse unos días y dejarle trabajar tranquilo con la promesa mutua de que no intentarán ponerse en contacto hasta que ella decida volver. Ese alejamiento se prolonga más de lo normal y los padres de Alicia y amigos empiezan a sospechar que algo raro hay en tan extraña y dilatada separación. Tampoco el comportamiento de Sidney es muy normal. Sidney empieza a fantasear con la posibilidad de haber matado a su mujer y actúa como si tal cosa hubiera sucedido. La policía sospecha de él, los periodistas, que han publicado la foto de Alicia en sus periódicos, y sus lectores sospechan de él, sus vecinos y amigos sospechan de él, su trabajo y sus relaciones se resienten de tanta sospecha. A pesar de todo, él persiste en no decir otra cosa que no sea negar ser el asesino de su esposa.
No es de las mejores novelas de la autora, tampoco es de las peores, y responde claramente a sus obsesiones: cualquiera puede ser un asesino y todo el mundo ha imaginado serlo en alguna ocasión, nunca se conoce del todo a alguien, ni siquiera a uno mismo, y nadie puede llegar a imaginar con qué fantasean aquellos que nos rodean… al fin y al cabo, la vida privada de cada suele ser bastante aburrida.
Les hará pasar unos ratos muy agradables… si no les irrita demasiado el comportamiento de estos tortolitos… o la traducción.
January 8, 2023
Frustrated, and pondering a piece I've been asked to write on the joys and dangers of a dark, fertile fantasy life, the universe gifted me (or was it Pat Highsmith herself?) with A Suspension of Mercy. My eyes bugged out of my head when I read about Sydney Bartleby, a young American writer who constantly ideates the violent death of people around him, but mainly that of his wife, Alicia:
Alex had died five times at least in Sydney's imagination. Alicia twenty times. She had died in a burning car, in a wrecked car, in the woods throttled by person or persons unknown, died falling down the stairs at home, drowned in her bath, died falling out the upstairs window while trying to rescue a bird in the eaves drain, died from poisoning that would leave no trace.
He thinks on it so much, he lives it. When Alicia goes away without telling anyone where, or when she will be back, this causes a lot of problems.
Someone close to me said, god, it's almost like you read this years ago and it deeply informed the writing of your novel! I laughed, because he's right, but I swear, I read this underrated and under-read noir beauty in the year 2023.
I love A Suspension of Mercy because it has Highsmith's usual slow burn. I love it because it's so psychologically accurate. I love it because there is a Mrs Lilybanks who stays Mrs Lilybanks no matter how well we get to know her. I love it because there are also the Polk-Faradays and the Sneezums.
And I love it because it was the unknown precursor to my own novel. Ms. Highsmith is someone important to me. A gift from the universe, I think.
Alex had died five times at least in Sydney's imagination. Alicia twenty times. She had died in a burning car, in a wrecked car, in the woods throttled by person or persons unknown, died falling down the stairs at home, drowned in her bath, died falling out the upstairs window while trying to rescue a bird in the eaves drain, died from poisoning that would leave no trace.
He thinks on it so much, he lives it. When Alicia goes away without telling anyone where, or when she will be back, this causes a lot of problems.
Someone close to me said, god, it's almost like you read this years ago and it deeply informed the writing of your novel! I laughed, because he's right, but I swear, I read this underrated and under-read noir beauty in the year 2023.
I love A Suspension of Mercy because it has Highsmith's usual slow burn. I love it because it's so psychologically accurate. I love it because there is a Mrs Lilybanks who stays Mrs Lilybanks no matter how well we get to know her. I love it because there are also the Polk-Faradays and the Sneezums.
And I love it because it was the unknown precursor to my own novel. Ms. Highsmith is someone important to me. A gift from the universe, I think.
November 19, 2023
I would describe this so-called 'psychological thriller' as very unconventional. And this is what made me read it to the end.
It's psychological but not a thriller to me. There's no mystery, no suspense and the only and unexpected crime is commited only at the end of the novel. The author (rather ironically) focuses on the difficulties of the marriage of the main character who is a writer of crime stories as well as his imagination playing tricks on him.
It's psychological but not a thriller to me. There's no mystery, no suspense and the only and unexpected crime is commited only at the end of the novel. The author (rather ironically) focuses on the difficulties of the marriage of the main character who is a writer of crime stories as well as his imagination playing tricks on him.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 6, 2020
4.25/5. Some good old murderous fun! This is about a thriller writer who starts to slowly unravel and lose his grip on reality when his wife goes missing and others start to wonder if he had anything to do with her disappearance. If you like classic suspense novels and books that make you continuously question what's real and what's imagined (not in a confusing, but in a fun I have no idea where this is going kind of way), then this is for you. I had a great time listening to this on audiobook and I generally enjoy Highsmith's stories, I just always wish she'd take more time to focus on the female characters in her books.
February 8, 2022
As others have observed, A Suspension of Mercy is the very model, or prototype, for the popular Gone Girl. There are several parallels. But this somewhat neglected classic is far better written, with a more reflective narrative. In this book, Sydney Bartleby is an American living in Suffolk with his English wife Alicia; he’s writing a novel, he’s working on a mystery tv series. He’s not making much progress with either, and his marriage isn’t going anywhere, either. Sometimes he jokes with his writing partner (on the tv series) about how it is he might kill his wife.
So when Alicia goes off indefinitely by herself, Sydney is relieved to have her gone, but then begins to enact some of the ideas for the murder: He digs a grave-like hole in the backyard, and so on. Research! But when Alicia is gone for months, everyone suspects Syd, it makes the news, his book and tv deals go sour. In addition, we don't like Sydney; he takes out his continuing career struggles on his wife, whom we like better.
The idea of a mystery writer imagining a murder of a spouse is not a surprising idea, of course. After Gone Girl I thought of many others, including a film I'd recommend, Sleuth, with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. This is a good one, though. I highly recommend Highsmith; she's great; most know her The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train, through the films, at least. But these lesser known or neglected novels are well-worth your time.
So when Alicia goes off indefinitely by herself, Sydney is relieved to have her gone, but then begins to enact some of the ideas for the murder: He digs a grave-like hole in the backyard, and so on. Research! But when Alicia is gone for months, everyone suspects Syd, it makes the news, his book and tv deals go sour. In addition, we don't like Sydney; he takes out his continuing career struggles on his wife, whom we like better.
The idea of a mystery writer imagining a murder of a spouse is not a surprising idea, of course. After Gone Girl I thought of many others, including a film I'd recommend, Sleuth, with Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. This is a good one, though. I highly recommend Highsmith; she's great; most know her The Talented Mr. Ripley and Strangers on a Train, through the films, at least. But these lesser known or neglected novels are well-worth your time.
October 9, 2025
Me lo he pasado genial. Ha sido como ver una película de Alfred Hitchcock.
Leí alguna novela de PH hace mil años y ahora me ha picado el gusanillo de volver a leer a esta autora.
Esta novela fue escrita en 1965. Eso hay que tenerlo muy en cuenta, pues puede resultar anacrónica. Hoy diríamos que es un thriller psicológico, sin embargo es un género que no estaba muy desarrollado por esa época, por lo que puede parecer simple. Pero con sabor a otra época! Y muy inglesa!
Ahh, ese tiempo en el que se escribían cartas y tenían que ponerse de acuerdo para hablar por teléfono! Por cierto, estaban todos los días bebiendo whisky. Eso también, jjjaaaa.
Tenemos aquí a un matrimonio joven que vive en un caserón antiguo en el campo, en Suffolk. El es guionista y ella es pintora. No les va muy bien en sus respectivas profesiones y concretamente él se siente bastante frustrado, intentando ella ser algo más positiva. Esta situación y el hecho de haberse casado de manera precipitada y sin conocerse más a fondo, hace que últimamente no se lleven bien y tengan una vida totalmente rutinaria.
Finalmente, ella toma la decisión de irse un tiempo fuera. Y aquí empieza una trama psicológica bastante entretenida, cuando él se imagina, desde su mente de novelista, que la ha asesinado, ya que ella no aparece.
Alicia y Sydney, los protagonistas, son inmaduros e inestables. El es una persona frustrada y con un comportamiento egocéntrico, que vuelca en ella. Alicia, que es simple y alegre, está harta de la actitud de su marido.
El perfil del matrimonio, que raya en la estupidez, está muy bien trazado. La vecina, la señora Lilybanks, es un gran personaje, que da un buen contrapunto a la trama. El resto de personajes son bastante estereotipados. Pero, en general, son todos bastante ingenuos, comparados con los personajes de novelas más actuales. Pero no deja de tener su encanto.
La autora sabe bien manejar la tensión y hacernos dudar. El aire de la novela me recuerda un poco a las de Agatha Christie, con personajes dudosos y un inspector de policía con preguntas incisivas y con suposiciones, queriendo dar un voto de confianza al sospechoso, pero firme en su teoría del asesino.
Final algo abierto... y que cada uno piense lo que quiera.
Leí alguna novela de PH hace mil años y ahora me ha picado el gusanillo de volver a leer a esta autora.
Esta novela fue escrita en 1965. Eso hay que tenerlo muy en cuenta, pues puede resultar anacrónica. Hoy diríamos que es un thriller psicológico, sin embargo es un género que no estaba muy desarrollado por esa época, por lo que puede parecer simple. Pero con sabor a otra época! Y muy inglesa!
Ahh, ese tiempo en el que se escribían cartas y tenían que ponerse de acuerdo para hablar por teléfono! Por cierto, estaban todos los días bebiendo whisky. Eso también, jjjaaaa.
Tenemos aquí a un matrimonio joven que vive en un caserón antiguo en el campo, en Suffolk. El es guionista y ella es pintora. No les va muy bien en sus respectivas profesiones y concretamente él se siente bastante frustrado, intentando ella ser algo más positiva. Esta situación y el hecho de haberse casado de manera precipitada y sin conocerse más a fondo, hace que últimamente no se lleven bien y tengan una vida totalmente rutinaria.
Finalmente, ella toma la decisión de irse un tiempo fuera. Y aquí empieza una trama psicológica bastante entretenida, cuando él se imagina, desde su mente de novelista, que la ha asesinado, ya que ella no aparece.
Alicia y Sydney, los protagonistas, son inmaduros e inestables. El es una persona frustrada y con un comportamiento egocéntrico, que vuelca en ella. Alicia, que es simple y alegre, está harta de la actitud de su marido.
El perfil del matrimonio, que raya en la estupidez, está muy bien trazado. La vecina, la señora Lilybanks, es un gran personaje, que da un buen contrapunto a la trama. El resto de personajes son bastante estereotipados. Pero, en general, son todos bastante ingenuos, comparados con los personajes de novelas más actuales. Pero no deja de tener su encanto.
La autora sabe bien manejar la tensión y hacernos dudar. El aire de la novela me recuerda un poco a las de Agatha Christie, con personajes dudosos y un inspector de policía con preguntas incisivas y con suposiciones, queriendo dar un voto de confianza al sospechoso, pero firme en su teoría del asesino.
Final algo abierto... y que cada uno piense lo que quiera.
October 2, 2020
Mid-20th Century North American Crime Readathon
BOOK 32
Does a second reading prove this is a 4-star novel? It does prove this is the original "Gone Girl".
HOOK=3 stars: "The land around Sydney and Alicia Bartleby's 2-story cottage was flat..." opens the book. Is Highsmith talking about a reflection of their marriage? A soul-bleaching flat land of ugliness? Then, more from page one: "The Bartleby's took better care of the ground behind the house...the front lawn was as untended as the hedge." This couple is obsessed with their personal endeavors (she is a painter/artist, he is an author) but not the external. Since I've read this novel already, this opening is a psychological punch to the gut, but feels just average on the first read.
PACE=4: A few page in and it's obvious this is a marriage in trouble. And then a chapter or so in the crime kicks in. This isn't a literary lightning bolt, but it's close.
PLOT=5: Brilliant. Sydney, the author, suffers from writer's block: his muse is dead, he decides. Alicia's art suffers also as both question their marriage. Alicia decides (perhaps) to go on a vacation and Sydney decides (perhaps) to bury his mystical muse in a rolled-up, moth-eaten carpet. Do we have 2 unreliable narrators? Or just one? Or neither, and are both telling us the truth? Mesmerizing.
CHARACTERS=3: It's interesting that this marriage is on the rocks, but I'd like to have had more about how they met, why they married. Mrs. Lillybanks is a new neighbor, a widow spending much time with a pair of binoculars, birdwatching...but has she seen too much? Mrs. Lillybanks deserves her very own novel.
ATMOSPHERE/PLACE=5: "He [Sydney] got out the pitchfork, and walked perhaps 50 yards in the woods before he found an area of 15 square feet without trees on it, where only grass and bare, moist earth showed. He began to dig...it was slow, hard work...When the grave was nearly deep enough, he went back to the car..." Then, "Alicia was obsessed with the color blue now, and she had bought sheets of heavy blue paper which she cut into 6 by 8 inch rectangles...she sat for hours on the beach and promenade benches making abstract drawings..." but no matter how definitive those squares are cut, she can't find her way, she is lost. If, that is, she isn't already buried. Spectacular meeting of atmosphere and plot.
SUMMARY: My rating is 4.0 for this second read. Yes, my first rating of 4-stars had been on target. And, yes, it's the original "Gone Girl" but without the ridiculous plot holes. It's sad to think that Hitchcock COULD have made a number of brilliant films from Highsmith's novels, but she is only now getting the credit she so much deserved.
ORIGINAL REVIEW
Does this sound familiar?
1) Wife goes missing.
2) Dysfunctional young married couple.
3) Husband suspected of her murder.
4) Wife has rich parents, husband might get a lot of money upon wife's death.
5) Husband has friend/confidante and both are in the same business.
6) There is a diary which may or may not have a true account of situation.
7) Friend/neighbor of wife suspicious of husband.
8) Media freak show.
9) Wife winds up living not too far away with another man.
10) Book a page-turner even though some plot points seem very odd, probably because
both the husband and wife have mental problems. And the end is sort of ambiguous.
If you have enjoyed this story recently, you're going to enjoy it again! You might even think Highsmith does it better, as I do!
BOOK 32
Does a second reading prove this is a 4-star novel? It does prove this is the original "Gone Girl".
HOOK=3 stars: "The land around Sydney and Alicia Bartleby's 2-story cottage was flat..." opens the book. Is Highsmith talking about a reflection of their marriage? A soul-bleaching flat land of ugliness? Then, more from page one: "The Bartleby's took better care of the ground behind the house...the front lawn was as untended as the hedge." This couple is obsessed with their personal endeavors (she is a painter/artist, he is an author) but not the external. Since I've read this novel already, this opening is a psychological punch to the gut, but feels just average on the first read.
PACE=4: A few page in and it's obvious this is a marriage in trouble. And then a chapter or so in the crime kicks in. This isn't a literary lightning bolt, but it's close.
PLOT=5: Brilliant. Sydney, the author, suffers from writer's block: his muse is dead, he decides. Alicia's art suffers also as both question their marriage. Alicia decides (perhaps) to go on a vacation and Sydney decides (perhaps) to bury his mystical muse in a rolled-up, moth-eaten carpet. Do we have 2 unreliable narrators? Or just one? Or neither, and are both telling us the truth? Mesmerizing.
CHARACTERS=3: It's interesting that this marriage is on the rocks, but I'd like to have had more about how they met, why they married. Mrs. Lillybanks is a new neighbor, a widow spending much time with a pair of binoculars, birdwatching...but has she seen too much? Mrs. Lillybanks deserves her very own novel.
ATMOSPHERE/PLACE=5: "He [Sydney] got out the pitchfork, and walked perhaps 50 yards in the woods before he found an area of 15 square feet without trees on it, where only grass and bare, moist earth showed. He began to dig...it was slow, hard work...When the grave was nearly deep enough, he went back to the car..." Then, "Alicia was obsessed with the color blue now, and she had bought sheets of heavy blue paper which she cut into 6 by 8 inch rectangles...she sat for hours on the beach and promenade benches making abstract drawings..." but no matter how definitive those squares are cut, she can't find her way, she is lost. If, that is, she isn't already buried. Spectacular meeting of atmosphere and plot.
SUMMARY: My rating is 4.0 for this second read. Yes, my first rating of 4-stars had been on target. And, yes, it's the original "Gone Girl" but without the ridiculous plot holes. It's sad to think that Hitchcock COULD have made a number of brilliant films from Highsmith's novels, but she is only now getting the credit she so much deserved.
ORIGINAL REVIEW
Does this sound familiar?
1) Wife goes missing.
2) Dysfunctional young married couple.
3) Husband suspected of her murder.
4) Wife has rich parents, husband might get a lot of money upon wife's death.
5) Husband has friend/confidante and both are in the same business.
6) There is a diary which may or may not have a true account of situation.
7) Friend/neighbor of wife suspicious of husband.
8) Media freak show.
9) Wife winds up living not too far away with another man.
10) Book a page-turner even though some plot points seem very odd, probably because
both the husband and wife have mental problems. And the end is sort of ambiguous.
If you have enjoyed this story recently, you're going to enjoy it again! You might even think Highsmith does it better, as I do!
July 9, 2025
Spoilers below
With a distinct Gone Girl vibe this is a nightmarish little tale of a marriage gone awry as only Highsmith could imagine it.
Not a story for readers who need likeable characters to root for, both Sydney and Alicia are odd people: he's a failed writer who fantasises about murdering his wife; she's an amateur artist who wants to play him at his own game to see how far he'll go at pretending to have killed her. Inevitably, the game takes on a life of its own when other people get involved...
There's a definite surreal edge to this as Sydney seems to lose track of what is real and what fantasy, and is almost disappointed that he may not be murderer material. Alicia is the surprise card and feels a bit underwritten given her story arc: .
This may not have the drive and shape of the Ripley books but Highsmith's aversion to domesticity and marriage is on fine display here, and there might be more than a hint of sardonic self-portrait in the struggling writer, which may also make sense of the ending .
With a dark, dark humour, this is a page-turner that had me racing to rustle the pages!
3.5 stars rounded up
With a distinct Gone Girl vibe this is a nightmarish little tale of a marriage gone awry as only Highsmith could imagine it.
Not a story for readers who need likeable characters to root for, both Sydney and Alicia are odd people: he's a failed writer who fantasises about murdering his wife; she's an amateur artist who wants to play him at his own game to see how far he'll go at pretending to have killed her. Inevitably, the game takes on a life of its own when other people get involved...
There's a definite surreal edge to this as Sydney seems to lose track of what is real and what fantasy, and is almost disappointed that he may not be murderer material. Alicia is the surprise card and feels a bit underwritten given her story arc: .
This may not have the drive and shape of the Ripley books but Highsmith's aversion to domesticity and marriage is on fine display here, and there might be more than a hint of sardonic self-portrait in the struggling writer, which may also make sense of the ending .
With a dark, dark humour, this is a page-turner that had me racing to rustle the pages!
3.5 stars rounded up
January 18, 2022
I read nine Patricia Highsmith novels last year, compulsively, like a junkie. Then I went cold turkey, even though I had bought a tenth, this one. It lay there, on a shelf but not shelved, taunting me. Till now. Surely I'm in control now. I'll just have one, just one. I can handle it. . . .
And this might just be my favorite Highsmith. Oh, it has the same quirky flaws. For a noir writer, Highsmith doesn't murder very well. Often it isn't even actually murder. The motive is there, even the want to, but in the event it's a slip, an accident. Maybe even an assisted suicide? Characters act implausibly. Storylines repeat.
So, spouses kill each other, if only in their imaginations. This spouse, however, is Sydney Bartleby, himself a sometimes writer of noir. And, his wife goes missing.
A reader will pretty much have to finish the last hundred pages before sleep.
But I can handle it . . .
And this might just be my favorite Highsmith. Oh, it has the same quirky flaws. For a noir writer, Highsmith doesn't murder very well. Often it isn't even actually murder. The motive is there, even the want to, but in the event it's a slip, an accident. Maybe even an assisted suicide? Characters act implausibly. Storylines repeat.
So, spouses kill each other, if only in their imaginations. This spouse, however, is Sydney Bartleby, himself a sometimes writer of noir. And, his wife goes missing.
A reader will pretty much have to finish the last hundred pages before sleep.
But I can handle it . . .
July 18, 2018
I hadn’t read Patricia Highsmith for years, but when she was added to the Virago list I realised that there was more to her backlist than I had realised, and that it really was time I did a little more reading.
This book was the one that caught my eye in the library catalogue – I liked the cover and I liked the title – and now that I’ve read it I have to say that it isn’t her best work but it was a lovely reminder of how good, how dark and how intriguing she can be.
Sidney Smith Bartleby is an American writer who has been blessed – or maybe cursed – with an exceptionally active imagination, and yet he has found little success
He married an English girl after a very short acquaintance, because he didn’t want her to go home without him, and so he went home with her. They settled in a remote cottage in Suffolk, with the idea in mind that the quiet countryside would be the perfect place for them to develop their artistic talents and their respective careers.
Neither the marriage nor the new home could be considered a success.
Alicia spends her time painting without any concern about where money is going to come from or any need to think about selling her work. She is the much loved only child of wealthy parents, they made a substantial contribution towards the purchase of the cottage, and she has a small private income at her disposal.
She was unimpressed by Sydney’s failure to find a publisher for his new novel, and she didn’t believe that the screenplays he wrote with a collaborator, Alex who had a steady income from a London publishing job, would be any more successful.
The whole situation was unhappy. Her waspishness and his uneven temper, isolation broken only when friends from London visited, a lack of anything much to do at other times, had left their marriage close to breaking point.
Sydney and Alicia were both rather pleased when Mrs Lilybanks, an elderly widow with a heart condition, moved into the only nearby house that had stood empty for quite some time. The new neighbours got on very well, but it wasn’t long before Mrs Lilybanks realised that the Bartlebys weren’t at all happy with each other.
Alicia coped by taking short holidays without her husband, and it wasn’t long until the day came when she didn’t come back.
Sydney wasn’t too worried because it gave him more time to work on his novel and he was working on ideas for a new televison crime drama that both he and Alex thought was a sure fire success.
His ideas for new episodes of his crime series began to get mixed up with his fantasies of killing his wife, and the line between fact and fiction began to blur.
‘Sometimes he plotted the murders, the robbery, the blackmail of people he and Alicia knew, though the people themselves knew nothing about it. Alex had died five times at least in Sydney’s imagination. Alicia twenty times. She had died in a burning car, in a wrecked car, in the woods throttled by person or persons unknown, died falling down the stairs at home, drowned in her bath, died falling out the upstairs window while trying to rescue a bird in the eaves drain, died from poisoning that would leave no trace. But the best way for him, was her dying by a blow in the house, and he removed her somewhere in the car, buried her somewhere, then told everyone that she had gone away for a few days, maybe to Brighton, maybe to London.’
Sydney recorded some of his murderous ideas in his journal, and he even bought a new rug so that he could use the old one to test his plan for secretly burying the body!
It was unlucky that Mrs Lilybanks was looking out of her window on the evening that Sidney decided to put his theory to the test
It was understandable that when Sidney couldn’t say where his wife had gone and when she didn’t receive the letter that Alicia had promised she felt that something must be terribly wrong and she should raise the alarm.
It was extremely unfortunate that her poor, weak heart was put under so much strain …
Sidney didn’t notice, because his crime series had been commissioned and he was completely caught up in scenarios that were becoming more and more elaborate and fantastical.
The set-up of this story was so good. The writing was clear and lucid, the plot was cleverly constructed, and I wasn’t quite sure what was real and what was fantasy, or just where the story might be going.
When Patricia Highsmith revealed a little more of Alicia’s story the book lost something. I wasn’t convinced that she would have acted as she did, unless there was an awful lot of backstory that hadn’t been told; and I wasn’t convinced that, faced with a murder charge, Sydney would have acted as he did, however caught up in his writing he was.
The interesting characters I had met began to seem more like plot devices.
The different responses of Mrs Lilybanks and Alex rang true, and so did the way that the net began to close around Sidney.
The plot moved inexorably on, I had to keep turning the pages, until I reached a startling ending that made me think again about what had gone before.
There was three-quarters of a really good book here; not Patricia Highsmith at her best, but more than enough to remind we of how very good she can be and make me want to read more of her work.
This book was the one that caught my eye in the library catalogue – I liked the cover and I liked the title – and now that I’ve read it I have to say that it isn’t her best work but it was a lovely reminder of how good, how dark and how intriguing she can be.
Sidney Smith Bartleby is an American writer who has been blessed – or maybe cursed – with an exceptionally active imagination, and yet he has found little success
He married an English girl after a very short acquaintance, because he didn’t want her to go home without him, and so he went home with her. They settled in a remote cottage in Suffolk, with the idea in mind that the quiet countryside would be the perfect place for them to develop their artistic talents and their respective careers.
Neither the marriage nor the new home could be considered a success.
Alicia spends her time painting without any concern about where money is going to come from or any need to think about selling her work. She is the much loved only child of wealthy parents, they made a substantial contribution towards the purchase of the cottage, and she has a small private income at her disposal.
She was unimpressed by Sydney’s failure to find a publisher for his new novel, and she didn’t believe that the screenplays he wrote with a collaborator, Alex who had a steady income from a London publishing job, would be any more successful.
The whole situation was unhappy. Her waspishness and his uneven temper, isolation broken only when friends from London visited, a lack of anything much to do at other times, had left their marriage close to breaking point.
Sydney and Alicia were both rather pleased when Mrs Lilybanks, an elderly widow with a heart condition, moved into the only nearby house that had stood empty for quite some time. The new neighbours got on very well, but it wasn’t long before Mrs Lilybanks realised that the Bartlebys weren’t at all happy with each other.
Alicia coped by taking short holidays without her husband, and it wasn’t long until the day came when she didn’t come back.
Sydney wasn’t too worried because it gave him more time to work on his novel and he was working on ideas for a new televison crime drama that both he and Alex thought was a sure fire success.
His ideas for new episodes of his crime series began to get mixed up with his fantasies of killing his wife, and the line between fact and fiction began to blur.
‘Sometimes he plotted the murders, the robbery, the blackmail of people he and Alicia knew, though the people themselves knew nothing about it. Alex had died five times at least in Sydney’s imagination. Alicia twenty times. She had died in a burning car, in a wrecked car, in the woods throttled by person or persons unknown, died falling down the stairs at home, drowned in her bath, died falling out the upstairs window while trying to rescue a bird in the eaves drain, died from poisoning that would leave no trace. But the best way for him, was her dying by a blow in the house, and he removed her somewhere in the car, buried her somewhere, then told everyone that she had gone away for a few days, maybe to Brighton, maybe to London.’
Sydney recorded some of his murderous ideas in his journal, and he even bought a new rug so that he could use the old one to test his plan for secretly burying the body!
It was unlucky that Mrs Lilybanks was looking out of her window on the evening that Sidney decided to put his theory to the test
It was understandable that when Sidney couldn’t say where his wife had gone and when she didn’t receive the letter that Alicia had promised she felt that something must be terribly wrong and she should raise the alarm.
It was extremely unfortunate that her poor, weak heart was put under so much strain …
Sidney didn’t notice, because his crime series had been commissioned and he was completely caught up in scenarios that were becoming more and more elaborate and fantastical.
The set-up of this story was so good. The writing was clear and lucid, the plot was cleverly constructed, and I wasn’t quite sure what was real and what was fantasy, or just where the story might be going.
When Patricia Highsmith revealed a little more of Alicia’s story the book lost something. I wasn’t convinced that she would have acted as she did, unless there was an awful lot of backstory that hadn’t been told; and I wasn’t convinced that, faced with a murder charge, Sydney would have acted as he did, however caught up in his writing he was.
The interesting characters I had met began to seem more like plot devices.
The different responses of Mrs Lilybanks and Alex rang true, and so did the way that the net began to close around Sidney.
The plot moved inexorably on, I had to keep turning the pages, until I reached a startling ending that made me think again about what had gone before.
There was three-quarters of a really good book here; not Patricia Highsmith at her best, but more than enough to remind we of how very good she can be and make me want to read more of her work.
November 18, 2023
” La finzione con la quale si era divertito fino a quel momento era improvvisamente diventata realtà”
Pubblicato nel 1965, “A Suspension of Mercy”, è un romanzo della famosa scritrice americana Patricia Highsmith che accoglie diversi canoni del genere giallo quanto di quello thriller.
Ambientato nella contea inglese del Sufflok, narra la storia di una coppia non più molto affiatata.
Lui si chiama Sidney ed è uno scrittore americano in cerca di affermazione ma che pare solo collezionare un fallimento dietro l’altro.
Lei è Alicia (o Alida, come nell’edizione digitale che ho letto ci si è divertiti ad alternare..) pittrice senza ansia della creazione.
Insieme sono i Bartleby e come il famoso personaggio letterario di Melville rappresentano un enigma.
Non vanno più d’accordo e questo appare chiaro fin dalle prime scene, eppure si ostinano a continuare il loro matrimonio.
”Sydney aveva l’impressione che sia lui che Alicia stessero aspettando un segnale: un segnale qualunque – di ostilità o di amore – che facesse pendere la bilancia da una parte o dall’altra.
Al culmine delle liti la loro soluzione è separarsi temporaneamente.
Alicia, infatti, è solita andarsene per qualche giorno senza dare notizia di sé.
Una volta tornata a casa ricominciano una routine in attesa della prossima lite.
” ..si muovevano entrambi con la monotonia di due vecchi attaccati alle loro abitudini come a un paio di rotaie..”
Tutto prosegue fino a che i due decidono l’ennesima separazione ma questa volta, di comune accordo:
” “Allora perché non facciamo finta che io sia morta per un po’?
Posso andar via per qualche settimana. E tu puoi lavorare quanto ti pare…”
Sidney immagina trame.
Lo fa talmente spesso da confondere spesso i contorni della realtà:
” Alex era morto almeno cinque volte, nell’immaginazione di Sydney. Alida una ventina
Come nella trama del romanzo che sta scrivendo “Vite programmate” che racconta di un gruppo di persone che decidono di programmare le esperienze di vita e di seguire scrupolosamente il programma. i due coniugi si attengono al loro copione.
Alicia sparisce davvero e pian piano tutti punteranno il dito contro Sidney..
Assassino o vittima di una morbosa immaginazione?
” Ma nella fantasia che Sydney preferiva, era lui a uccidere Alicia con un colpo in testa, dentro casa; poi portava via il cadavere in macchina, lo seppelliva da qualche parte, e diceva a tutti che se n’era andata per qualche giorno, forse a Brighton, forse a Londra. Ma non sarebbe tornata. La polizia non sarebbe riuscita a trovarla. Sydney avrebbe ammesso con gli sbirri, con tutti, che il loro matrimonio andava male negli ultimi tempi, e che forse Alicia aveva voluto allontanarsi da lui e cambiare nome,”
Pubblicato nel 1965, “A Suspension of Mercy”, è un romanzo della famosa scritrice americana Patricia Highsmith che accoglie diversi canoni del genere giallo quanto di quello thriller.
Ambientato nella contea inglese del Sufflok, narra la storia di una coppia non più molto affiatata.
Lui si chiama Sidney ed è uno scrittore americano in cerca di affermazione ma che pare solo collezionare un fallimento dietro l’altro.
Lei è Alicia (o Alida, come nell’edizione digitale che ho letto ci si è divertiti ad alternare..) pittrice senza ansia della creazione.
Insieme sono i Bartleby e come il famoso personaggio letterario di Melville rappresentano un enigma.
Non vanno più d’accordo e questo appare chiaro fin dalle prime scene, eppure si ostinano a continuare il loro matrimonio.
”Sydney aveva l’impressione che sia lui che Alicia stessero aspettando un segnale: un segnale qualunque – di ostilità o di amore – che facesse pendere la bilancia da una parte o dall’altra.
Al culmine delle liti la loro soluzione è separarsi temporaneamente.
Alicia, infatti, è solita andarsene per qualche giorno senza dare notizia di sé.
Una volta tornata a casa ricominciano una routine in attesa della prossima lite.
” ..si muovevano entrambi con la monotonia di due vecchi attaccati alle loro abitudini come a un paio di rotaie..”
Tutto prosegue fino a che i due decidono l’ennesima separazione ma questa volta, di comune accordo:
” “Allora perché non facciamo finta che io sia morta per un po’?
Posso andar via per qualche settimana. E tu puoi lavorare quanto ti pare…”
Sidney immagina trame.
Lo fa talmente spesso da confondere spesso i contorni della realtà:
” Alex era morto almeno cinque volte, nell’immaginazione di Sydney. Alida una ventina
Come nella trama del romanzo che sta scrivendo “Vite programmate” che racconta di un gruppo di persone che decidono di programmare le esperienze di vita e di seguire scrupolosamente il programma. i due coniugi si attengono al loro copione.
Alicia sparisce davvero e pian piano tutti punteranno il dito contro Sidney..
Assassino o vittima di una morbosa immaginazione?
” Ma nella fantasia che Sydney preferiva, era lui a uccidere Alicia con un colpo in testa, dentro casa; poi portava via il cadavere in macchina, lo seppelliva da qualche parte, e diceva a tutti che se n’era andata per qualche giorno, forse a Brighton, forse a Londra. Ma non sarebbe tornata. La polizia non sarebbe riuscita a trovarla. Sydney avrebbe ammesso con gli sbirri, con tutti, che il loro matrimonio andava male negli ultimi tempi, e che forse Alicia aveva voluto allontanarsi da lui e cambiare nome,”
September 4, 2022
Es un libro bastante interesante. Tengo muchos sentimientos encontrados respecto a los personajes, son ODIOSOS. Y estúpidos. Todos. Eso supongo que lo hace un buen libro jajaja
Por cierto: la trama parece la base que usó Gilian Flyn en Perdida. No me mientan.
Por cierto: la trama parece la base que usó Gilian Flyn en Perdida. No me mientan.
August 7, 2025
La principal fortaleza de "Crímenes imaginarios" reside en la exploración de la culpa y la paranoia. Highsmith convierte a Sidney en un antihéroe con el que el lector puede, a pesar de todo, empatizar. Su mente se convierte en el escenario de un crimen que, aunque no haya cometido, siente como si lo hubiera hecho. La autora nos arrastra a esta espiral de dudas, haciendo que la tensión aumente a medida que la vida de Sidney se desmorona.
La novela también es un estudio sobre la naturaleza corrosiva de la imaginación y la forma en que los pensamientos oscuros pueden manifestarse en la realidad. Los "crímenes imaginarios" de Sidney se vuelven tan reales que, al final, el lector se cuestiona la verdadera inocencia del personaje. La maestría de Highsmith radica en dejar el final abierto, forzando al lector a sacar sus propias conclusiones y a reflexionar sobre la capacidad de la mente humana para el mal.
La novela también es un estudio sobre la naturaleza corrosiva de la imaginación y la forma en que los pensamientos oscuros pueden manifestarse en la realidad. Los "crímenes imaginarios" de Sidney se vuelven tan reales que, al final, el lector se cuestiona la verdadera inocencia del personaje. La maestría de Highsmith radica en dejar el final abierto, forzando al lector a sacar sus propias conclusiones y a reflexionar sobre la capacidad de la mente humana para el mal.
August 21, 2021
Highsmith’s narrators shift and flit. Sydney Bartleby, TV series writer (or is he really Highsmith showing the reader what goes on in her mind?) is becoming disillusioned with his wife. What ensues are blurred lines of writing, reality, and imagination.
Sydney’s dialogue with his wife, and the police is very honest and bland, almost comical, and not contributing any clues. Sydney’s reactions and the thoughts running through his mind when questioned lead the reader to believe there is more to his statements. What can the reader trust???
In spite of my ignorance at what all Highsmith is getting at, (but I did find the in-laws’ last name of Sneezum very funny), the plot carries and a very clever, polished mystery this is.
Sydney’s dialogue with his wife, and the police is very honest and bland, almost comical, and not contributing any clues. Sydney’s reactions and the thoughts running through his mind when questioned lead the reader to believe there is more to his statements. What can the reader trust???
In spite of my ignorance at what all Highsmith is getting at, (but I did find the in-laws’ last name of Sneezum very funny), the plot carries and a very clever, polished mystery this is.
November 24, 2021
If your wife mysteriously goes missing, it doesn't look so good if you recently bought a new rug:
The tone of this book is so different from Pat's previous one The Glass Cell which was cruel and dismal. This book, published a year later, is sly and nerve-wracking.
"Oh--isn’t this a different carpet?"Sydney and his wife Alicia are playing a risky game -- hoodwinking their friends, the police, the media, her parents, and each other. At 80%, I still couldn't figure out what Highsmith was up to.
The tone of this book is so different from Pat's previous one The Glass Cell which was cruel and dismal. This book, published a year later, is sly and nerve-wracking.
November 13, 2018
I was unable to muster the necessary suspension of disbelief for this to work. I suppose Highsmith has something meta to say about the writer and the mind of the murderer, but meh. This is Ripley that missed.
March 25, 2021
A terrific suspense novel with an unguessable and very satisfactory ending.
July 19, 2024
I was prompted to read this by a friend's mention of it, and her like of the author... and that it is set in part in an area I'm familiar with 🙂
🌿🌟
I felt the novel was very much a study in relationships, communication, and the breakdown of both...
🙂🌟
I liked the writer writing about a writer writing, and an artistic couple... 🙂
📝🎨🌟
a kinda prank/jest/experiment becomes alot more complicated... 😉😯
suspicion and the forming of ideas... slowly coming to conclusions... perspective/view changing under the influence of others... doubting initial feelings, but also changing with more time.
🙂🙃
I thought the novel was interesting in the way it portrayed others' concerns that a husband and wife take time apart - that there must be something wrong in it. well, there was something amiss in their relationship, but they could spend time apart when all's well too 😉
and the emphasis on Alicia not letting anyone know where she is - that pressure on people, and women, to be accountable to others for their whereabouts.
I thought there was alot of comment on gendered and relationship dynamics integral to the novel.
🙂🙃
aside from the misunderstanding/misrepresentation of schizophrenia, the exploration of the mental consequences of the situation were interesting and well done. Sidney starting to lose his confidence and sense of reality...
and also everyone else's shifting position wrt Sidney and and their thoughts about what's happened and happening... 🙂🤔
🙂🙃
it's interesting as the novel progresses that Sidney - who I didn't like initially, and I think I was actively encouraged to dislike by the author - becomes an increasingly sympathetic character, as we see the behaviour of others around him.
also the increasing feeling that Sidney should have told the police in Brighton that he'd located Alicia. tho I understood the not wanting to involve the police in a personal affair, and liked that this was presented/strongly held onto for so long. and I thought it was kinda sweet him supporting her privacy and autonomy wrt what she's doing 🙂
but yes, everyone kinda behaving erratically and not rationally, and things feeling like they're going from bad to worse... 😯😱
🙂🙃
well written I think - as the story progressed, I kept anticipating the coming potential twist(s) 🙂
I also enjoyed some of the details along the way - eg the 5 inch slug, and other small details - almost incidental, but how they lent some focus and something else 🙂
🙂🌟
the novel was very dated by the cost of things, awa some attitudes (I got curious about when written - 1965 by the look of it).
🌟 🌟 🌟
accessed as an RNIB talking book, read by... hmm, a couple readers were mentioned -
Gabriel Woolf / David Broomfield - which one!?! 😯🤔
🌿🌟
I felt the novel was very much a study in relationships, communication, and the breakdown of both...
🙂🌟
I liked the writer writing about a writer writing, and an artistic couple... 🙂
📝🎨🌟
a kinda prank/jest/experiment becomes alot more complicated... 😉😯
suspicion and the forming of ideas... slowly coming to conclusions... perspective/view changing under the influence of others... doubting initial feelings, but also changing with more time.
🙂🙃
I thought the novel was interesting in the way it portrayed others' concerns that a husband and wife take time apart - that there must be something wrong in it. well, there was something amiss in their relationship, but they could spend time apart when all's well too 😉
and the emphasis on Alicia not letting anyone know where she is - that pressure on people, and women, to be accountable to others for their whereabouts.
I thought there was alot of comment on gendered and relationship dynamics integral to the novel.
🙂🙃
aside from the misunderstanding/misrepresentation of schizophrenia, the exploration of the mental consequences of the situation were interesting and well done. Sidney starting to lose his confidence and sense of reality...
and also everyone else's shifting position wrt Sidney and and their thoughts about what's happened and happening... 🙂🤔
🙂🙃
it's interesting as the novel progresses that Sidney - who I didn't like initially, and I think I was actively encouraged to dislike by the author - becomes an increasingly sympathetic character, as we see the behaviour of others around him.
also the increasing feeling that Sidney should have told the police in Brighton that he'd located Alicia. tho I understood the not wanting to involve the police in a personal affair, and liked that this was presented/strongly held onto for so long. and I thought it was kinda sweet him supporting her privacy and autonomy wrt what she's doing 🙂
but yes, everyone kinda behaving erratically and not rationally, and things feeling like they're going from bad to worse... 😯😱
🙂🙃
well written I think - as the story progressed, I kept anticipating the coming potential twist(s) 🙂
I also enjoyed some of the details along the way - eg the 5 inch slug, and other small details - almost incidental, but how they lent some focus and something else 🙂
🙂🌟
the novel was very dated by the cost of things, awa some attitudes (I got curious about when written - 1965 by the look of it).
🌟 🌟 🌟
accessed as an RNIB talking book, read by... hmm, a couple readers were mentioned -
Gabriel Woolf / David Broomfield - which one!?! 😯🤔
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 2, 2024
Those familiar with Highsmith's work are in for a treat with this lesser-known novel.
It's as if, when she set out, the author said to herself, 'What if I did something real different? What if I kept my usual self, with its usual tone, out of the room? Would it work?'
It works. As you begin reading, you're likely to notice an altered Highsmith. Her usual economy is there - that would be there with just about any competent mystery writer: no fat. But the Highsmith we can usually recognize more immediately seems elsewhere. The style is still distinct, not like an imitation of someone else - but, for Highsmith, the approach is fresh (and, generally, noticeably milder). These characters feel quite new.
Then, beyond the midway point, it's as though Highsmith thought, 'Well, that was fun but I think I can let myself back in now.' The latter part of the novel feels like prime Highsmith - very much so. ~ almost (but not quite) to the point where the shift feels jarring.
~ except that there's an intriguing benefit. By ultimately rolling up her sleeves with her standard persona, her characters suddenly reveal an even deeper duplicity than we could have imagined. We start thinking about the possible depths that were there in the main couple all along but which we chose not to pick up on.
(Along the way, Highsmith also illuminates some of the particular routines of the writing profession. Her hands-off manner earlier on allows for a slyly objective take on a writer's life... a take which will turn deliciously ironic as the story moves towards its conclusion.)
Highsmith makes a couple of bold and seemingly irrational (even for her) choices when it comes to certain turns in the protagonist's motivation. The reader would be wise to consider that, yes, he probably *would* do such things - trapped as he is by the uncertainty that often slips him up as a writer. As a Highsmith villain, Sydney's confidence is harder-earned.
I read this book in a single day. To me, that shows that Highsmith's 'schizophrenic' gamble paid off.
It's as if, when she set out, the author said to herself, 'What if I did something real different? What if I kept my usual self, with its usual tone, out of the room? Would it work?'
It works. As you begin reading, you're likely to notice an altered Highsmith. Her usual economy is there - that would be there with just about any competent mystery writer: no fat. But the Highsmith we can usually recognize more immediately seems elsewhere. The style is still distinct, not like an imitation of someone else - but, for Highsmith, the approach is fresh (and, generally, noticeably milder). These characters feel quite new.
Then, beyond the midway point, it's as though Highsmith thought, 'Well, that was fun but I think I can let myself back in now.' The latter part of the novel feels like prime Highsmith - very much so. ~ almost (but not quite) to the point where the shift feels jarring.
~ except that there's an intriguing benefit. By ultimately rolling up her sleeves with her standard persona, her characters suddenly reveal an even deeper duplicity than we could have imagined. We start thinking about the possible depths that were there in the main couple all along but which we chose not to pick up on.
(Along the way, Highsmith also illuminates some of the particular routines of the writing profession. Her hands-off manner earlier on allows for a slyly objective take on a writer's life... a take which will turn deliciously ironic as the story moves towards its conclusion.)
Highsmith makes a couple of bold and seemingly irrational (even for her) choices when it comes to certain turns in the protagonist's motivation. The reader would be wise to consider that, yes, he probably *would* do such things - trapped as he is by the uncertainty that often slips him up as a writer. As a Highsmith villain, Sydney's confidence is harder-earned.
I read this book in a single day. To me, that shows that Highsmith's 'schizophrenic' gamble paid off.
July 12, 2025
A Suspension of Mercy (1965) is a compelling, flawed, read. Quintessential Patricia Highsmith in its exploration of psychological suspense, moral ambiguity, and the dark undercurrents of human relationships. Set in rural Suffolk, England, it centres on Sydney Bartleby, a struggling American thriller writer, and his English wife, Alicia.
Reality and fiction are constantly reflected and confused. Sydney's profession as a thriller writer allows Highsmith to play with metafiction, as Sydney's fictional murder plots begin to bleed into his real life, at least in terms of how others perceive his behaviour.
A Suspension of Mercy is far from peak Highsmith and is understandably not among her most universally acclaimed works, yet it still offers a fascinating study of obsession, fantasy, and the chilling consequences of allowing one's inner world to become dangerously intertwined with external perceptions.
Highsmith completists will find plenty to appreciate in its page turnery blend of noir and the psychological. If you find implausibility hard to deal with then this will not be your cup of tea. It's somewhat contrived. Sydney's fantasies set off a number of unlikely chains of events. However, put that to one side and the terse, efficient prose and short, punchy chapters should keep you engaged as the escalating suspicion surrounding Sydney contributes to a palpable sense of suspense. I raced through the final section and was glad to have read it.
3/5
Reality and fiction are constantly reflected and confused. Sydney's profession as a thriller writer allows Highsmith to play with metafiction, as Sydney's fictional murder plots begin to bleed into his real life, at least in terms of how others perceive his behaviour.
A Suspension of Mercy is far from peak Highsmith and is understandably not among her most universally acclaimed works, yet it still offers a fascinating study of obsession, fantasy, and the chilling consequences of allowing one's inner world to become dangerously intertwined with external perceptions.
Highsmith completists will find plenty to appreciate in its page turnery blend of noir and the psychological. If you find implausibility hard to deal with then this will not be your cup of tea. It's somewhat contrived. Sydney's fantasies set off a number of unlikely chains of events. However, put that to one side and the terse, efficient prose and short, punchy chapters should keep you engaged as the escalating suspicion surrounding Sydney contributes to a palpable sense of suspense. I raced through the final section and was glad to have read it.
3/5
September 23, 2023
Classic Highsmith — methodically slow and quite intriguing. Very unusual premise & I’m not sure how I feel about it yet I can’t stop thinking about it - which is why it garnered 5 🌟
February 10, 2019
Amo este libro, si bien conservo todos mis pensamientos de mi primera lectura esta vez simplemente pude disfrutar de la estupidez de sus personajes y sus ganas de arruinarse la vida.
El final, como ya sabía lo que pasaría, me a gustado más esta vez.
-----------------
Este es uno de esos libros en los que no tengo idea de como calificar, por una parte el argumento es un chiste,apenas se sostiene y podría fácilmente ser resulto en 5 páginas si sus personajes no se rehusaran a usar sus neuronas,pero por otra parte todas las tonterías que leí no me hicieron odiar el libro o sus personajes,de hecho me reí la mayoría del tiempo porque todo era tan tonto que llegaba a ser gracioso.
Sidney es quizás el personaje con menos sentido común que he leido, pero era tan divertido verlo ahogarse en un vaso de agua y hacer un drama por todo,ademas su mente morbosa y violenta era interesante,sobre todo cuando mezclaba realidad con ficción y pensaba que por fin había terminado de volverse loco.
Alicia es un personaje menos interesante,tiene la inteligencia emocional de un bebé y no tengo idea de como es que puede vivir siendo tan inmadura,pero como dije no la odio,porque el libro no intenta que simpatice con ella sino que muestra lo disfuncional que son ambos,Sidney y ella,como pareja y como individuos.
Lamentablemente como misterio no me atrajo tanto,no sentí ninguna clase de tensión porque nosotros sabemos desde un principio que es lo que sucede y porque todos esos problemas se podrian haber solucionado si la gente hubiese hablado cuando se supone que debían en vez de innecesariamente hacerse los misteriosos.
Este no es un libro que yo me pueda tomar en serio,como libro de misterio es un enorme chiste sin pies ni cabeza,pero fue gracioso y me divirtió.
El final, como ya sabía lo que pasaría, me a gustado más esta vez.
-----------------
Este es uno de esos libros en los que no tengo idea de como calificar, por una parte el argumento es un chiste,apenas se sostiene y podría fácilmente ser resulto en 5 páginas si sus personajes no se rehusaran a usar sus neuronas,pero por otra parte todas las tonterías que leí no me hicieron odiar el libro o sus personajes,de hecho me reí la mayoría del tiempo porque todo era tan tonto que llegaba a ser gracioso.
Sidney es quizás el personaje con menos sentido común que he leido, pero era tan divertido verlo ahogarse en un vaso de agua y hacer un drama por todo,ademas su mente morbosa y violenta era interesante,sobre todo cuando mezclaba realidad con ficción y pensaba que por fin había terminado de volverse loco.
Alicia es un personaje menos interesante,tiene la inteligencia emocional de un bebé y no tengo idea de como es que puede vivir siendo tan inmadura,pero como dije no la odio,porque el libro no intenta que simpatice con ella sino que muestra lo disfuncional que son ambos,Sidney y ella,como pareja y como individuos.
Lamentablemente como misterio no me atrajo tanto,no sentí ninguna clase de tensión porque nosotros sabemos desde un principio que es lo que sucede y porque todos esos problemas se podrian haber solucionado si la gente hubiese hablado cuando se supone que debían en vez de innecesariamente hacerse los misteriosos.
Este no es un libro que yo me pueda tomar en serio,como libro de misterio es un enorme chiste sin pies ni cabeza,pero fue gracioso y me divirtió.
October 16, 2022
Oh I am enjoying my journey through Highsmith's lesser known works. This is such a weird and gutsy concept for a story, it feels dark and violent and yet it's practically bloodless on the page. Once again we consider the strange, (but in my opinion not so unusual) violent tendencies of men. This time it is Sydney, a writer whose work has always had a strain of the macabre. His life looks idyllic, living in the British countryside with Alicia, his wife of just a year. But inside his head, Sydney ponders what it would be like to kill her.
Are these fantasies not all that different from the plots he dreams up for television serials? Are they signs of a lurking threat? Highsmith as always walks an impressive tightrope. As the plot goes on, it becomes less about actual violence and more about Sydney's willingness to commit to this vision of himself as a man who could commit such violence. Deeply unusual, but I was spellbound.
I did this on audio which worked quite nicely.
Are these fantasies not all that different from the plots he dreams up for television serials? Are they signs of a lurking threat? Highsmith as always walks an impressive tightrope. As the plot goes on, it becomes less about actual violence and more about Sydney's willingness to commit to this vision of himself as a man who could commit such violence. Deeply unusual, but I was spellbound.
I did this on audio which worked quite nicely.
May 22, 2023
04/2015
This has all the typical Highsmith ingredients: guilt, not guilt, murder, not murder. But it's a novel explicitly about the (inner/outer) life of a writer. Intellectual and cool.
Happy that I still loved this, because it was my favorite Highsmith novel when I was, I think, 31. My other favorite of hers, This Sweet Sickness, I found overlong when I re read it (still good, but not great like I'd thought). This is why I think it's important to re read things. I try not to think in terms of opinions I formed a decade ago (and, as I write this, it's only been seven or eight years since I was 31).
This has all the typical Highsmith ingredients: guilt, not guilt, murder, not murder. But it's a novel explicitly about the (inner/outer) life of a writer. Intellectual and cool.
Happy that I still loved this, because it was my favorite Highsmith novel when I was, I think, 31. My other favorite of hers, This Sweet Sickness, I found overlong when I re read it (still good, but not great like I'd thought). This is why I think it's important to re read things. I try not to think in terms of opinions I formed a decade ago (and, as I write this, it's only been seven or eight years since I was 31).
March 5, 2015
Sydney Bartleby is an American living in Suffolk with his English wife Alicia; she lives quite comfortably on her inheritance, while Syd is a struggling mystery writer, hacking away at his great mystery novel while failing to sell crime-show screenplays to television studios. Their marriage on the rocks, after one spat too many Alicia heads to London and leaves Syd alone for a few weeks—and both look forward to the quiet and solitude. Syd's writing picks up and he makes sales, but as the weeks pass and his wife fails to return, suspicion begins to fall on Syd. Why hasn’t she contacted anyone? Why hasn’t she collected her weekly inheritance of £50? And why did his neighbor Mrs. Lilybanks see him walking around one night, carrying a heavy carpet over his shoulder—who buries a carpet in the middle of the night? The Police change their investigation from a missing persons case to a murder; and to complicate things, Sydney begins living out his own murder-mystery plots, play-acting the game of murder under the watchful eye of the investigators…
While Highsmith does an excellent job building tension around this concept---a murder without a corpse---Syd's character I found a bit frustrating. Highsmith has a reputation for trapping her characters in unavoidable circumstances, usually through their own guilt and frantic attempts to escape. But I felt Syd wasn't so much "trapped" as "merely accepting the circumstances and refusing to challenge them"---whenever he learns something that would remove suspicion from himself, he keeps it hidden, continuing to play chicken with the investigators. He knows he's innocent and doesn't worry, at which point why should I? Yet Highsmith still crafts a tense, foreboding atmosphere. Not a 100% success for me, though I will try again with another Highsmith and see if that one is a better fit.
Full review, and other suspense/mystery reviews, found here.
While Highsmith does an excellent job building tension around this concept---a murder without a corpse---Syd's character I found a bit frustrating. Highsmith has a reputation for trapping her characters in unavoidable circumstances, usually through their own guilt and frantic attempts to escape. But I felt Syd wasn't so much "trapped" as "merely accepting the circumstances and refusing to challenge them"---whenever he learns something that would remove suspicion from himself, he keeps it hidden, continuing to play chicken with the investigators. He knows he's innocent and doesn't worry, at which point why should I? Yet Highsmith still crafts a tense, foreboding atmosphere. Not a 100% success for me, though I will try again with another Highsmith and see if that one is a better fit.
Full review, and other suspense/mystery reviews, found here.
August 27, 2009
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.
February 28, 2024
All his explanations would be unsatisfactory, but the important thing was to tell her as soon as possible that there wasn’t anything in the carpet. (What? I don’t believe it, he’d say to the police. Somebody’s stolen my corpse? I won’t have it! Look again.)
July 1, 2021
“… y todo era una cuestión de actitudes”
October 22, 2022
Sydney Bartleby is a hack writer and a not very nice guy. His wife, Alicia is hardly better, though I put most of the blame for the problems in their relationship on Sydney. As bad as the two lead characters are, Ms. Highsmith managed to engage my sympathy for both of them for most of the story though I went up and down on Sydney, sometimes rooting for him and sometimes wishing for him to be arrested, tried and convicted for the murder of his very much alive but missing wife.
The back and forth between Sydney's imagination and reality worked brilliantly when I couldn't tell for a moment whether he had really killed Alicia or not. But there were also a few places along the way where I couldn't match the characters' actions with their motivations. It wasn't quite as tightly plotted as some of Ms. Highsmith's other books like Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. And the ending wasn't fully satisfying to me, but even so, a near miss for Patricia Highsmith is a better book than most authors can achieve at their best. It's certainly a better book than the talentless Mr. Bartleby could ever have written.
The back and forth between Sydney's imagination and reality worked brilliantly when I couldn't tell for a moment whether he had really killed Alicia or not. But there were also a few places along the way where I couldn't match the characters' actions with their motivations. It wasn't quite as tightly plotted as some of Ms. Highsmith's other books like Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. And the ending wasn't fully satisfying to me, but even so, a near miss for Patricia Highsmith is a better book than most authors can achieve at their best. It's certainly a better book than the talentless Mr. Bartleby could ever have written.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 383 reviews