GREAT READS

Strangers on a Train

Patricia Highsmith.

Fans of psychological thrillers and mysteries will love sinking their teeth into Patricia Highsmith's noir classic Strangers on a Train. At the top of his career and deeply in love with the woman of his dreams, Guy Haines is taking the train to request a divorce from his unabashedly promiscuous wife. The picture of timidity, Guy finds himself conversing with a fellow passenger named Charles Bruno whose magnetic and aggressive behavior creates a unique situation. Bruno proposes that the two exchange murders - if Guy will kill Bruno's father, Bruno will kill Guy's estranged wife. His plot seems simple; neither man will be implicated because each lacks a motive and their relationship to one another is virtually non-existent. Guy believes Bruno's proposition must be a joke, but Bruno makes it all too clear that he is dead serious. This taut and brilliant novel will appeal to readers who are just starting to dip their toes into the mystery genre. Although Strangers on a Train was the inspiration behind Alfred Hitchcock's film of the same title, the differences are many and significant. And with all due respect to Mr. Hitchcock, the book is just plain better.

Recommended by Leah Davies