Highsmith spent some time in Mexico trying to write whilst living cheaply. This is her only novel that takes place there. Dorothy Hughes did not think highly of this effort, nor that Highsmith had much success in capturing the country and its people (something Hughes managed with much more insight and finesse). Highsmith had no…
Tag: Patricia Highsmith
The Roots of Ripley @NoirBristol
Hop on over to Bristol Noir to read my latest musings on the mind behind Tom Ripley. I am working on a thing about Patricia Highsmith, with a little Burnt Orange Heresy in there as well. I was going to give a presentation at Captivating Criminality, but I think it will go to print instead. Possibly…
Snapshots of Pescara
I attended Captivating Criminality 6 on the coast of the Adriatic. Pescara was once an Olympic venue. Pier Paolo Passolini passed there on his coastal roadtrip. It was very hot and surprisingly humid, so you can imagine how enervated I was (melting! melting!). Though I knew co-host Fiona Peters, I met folks I’ve known online…
Captivating Criminality 6
I am on the road again! Off to the east coast of Italy for Captivating Criminality 6. It should be a lot of fun. I’ve not been to that part of Italy and it looks like there’s a great range of presentations. I’ll be talking about the adaptations of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley’s Game. Not sure…
New Interview and forthcoming Clues
I had a delightful interview with Dave Probert at Tangential Deviation. The conceit of the series is that you begin wherever the last interviewee stopped, so we began with light sabers and ping-ponged through a variety of subjects in the very tangential way that comes to me perfectly naturally (attention span of an otter: check!). I…
NoirCon 2014 – Part 1
I headed off to NoirCon. It was a misty morning so the fog floated over the Hudson as the train rumbled south. Before you knew it we were passing under the George Washington and pulling into Penn Station. After a relatively quick and painless change, I was on my way to Philly. I’d already missed…