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Strangers on a train

Leonard Cassuto in the WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB122731246039849451-lMyQjAxMDI4MjI3MjMyMTIyWj.html

Mention "Strangers on a Train" to suspense buffs and you'll likely evoke memories of Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 thriller about a celebrity athlete who fends off a debonair psychopath who's trying to frame him. But before Hitchcock's movie came Patricia Highsmith's 1950 novel. Highsmith's original "Strangers on a Train" is a moody and disturbing excavation of guilty paranoia that bears little resemblance to the film beyond its initial premise.

Otto Penzler, veteran editor and publisher of crime writing, said of Highsmith's fiction that "you don't know who are the good guys and the bad guys because there are no nice people." "Strangers on a Train" doesn't appear to fit that description at first. The story proceeds from a chance meeting on a train between two men, the indolent Bruno and the industrious Guy. Each has a family member he wishes he could be rid of, so Bruno proposes that they trade murders, with each doing the other's dirty work to avoid suspicion. "It's the idea of my life!" declares Bruno -- but Guy doesn't agree.

The Paris Enigma by Pablo de Santis

As Detectives Convene, a Towering Mystery

By VICTORINO MATUS

The Paris Enigma
By Pablo De Santis
Harper, 244 pages, $24.95

Exactly how were crimes solved before the advent of computerized fingerprint analysis, DNA testing and everything else available to Gil Grissom on "CSI"? As Pablo De Santis reminds us in his luminous thriller, "The Paris Enigma," criminal investigators a century ago had to rely almost entirely on mere mental acuity and reasoning skills.

WSJ interview with P D James

WSJ Nov 2008

Phyllis Dorothy James White worked in British public service for 30 years, including a stretch at the Home Office's Police and Criminal Law department. A late starter as a novelist (she first published a novel at age 42), she became one of the pre-eminent mystery writers with her Adam Dalgliesh detective series (often adapted for TV). Her dystopian sci-fi novel "Children of Men" was made into an acclaimed 2006 film. Baroness James, 88 years old, spoke with us from her house in London, before Tuesday's U.S. publication of "The Private Patient" -- her 14th Dalgliesh book, this one about a strangulation at a private plastic-surgery clinic.

The Draining lake, by Arnaldur Indridason

The Draining Lake
By Arnaldur Indridason
Thomas Dunne, 312 pages, $24.95

In Arnaldur Indridason's "Reykjavik Thriller" series set in Iceland, Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson carries with him two lifelong obsessions: missing persons and natural catastrophes. Alas, he never has to travel far before being confronted with both.