A Suspension of Mercy, Patricia Highsmith
A Suspension of Mercy, Patricia Highsmith
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A Suspension of Mercy

Author: Patricia Highsmith

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 7 hr 17 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/03/2015

Synopsis

Throughout her career, Patricia Highsmith brought a keen literary eye and a genius for plumbing the psychopathic mind to more than thirty works of fiction, unparalleled in their placid deviousness and sardonic humor. With deadpan accuracy, she delighted in creating true sociopaths in the guise of the everyday man or woman. In A Suspension of Mercy, a masterpiece of noir fantasy, Highsmith revels in eliciting the unsettling psychological forces that lurk beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.Sydney Bartleby has killed his wife. At least, he has thought about it, compulsively, repeatedly, plotting schemes, designing escapes, forging alibis. Of course he has; he’s a thriller writer. He even knows how to dispose of her body. But when Alicia takes a long, unannounced holiday, Sydney descends into the treacherous world of his own fantasy.

About Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) was an American author most widely known for her psychological thrillers, which led to more than two dozen film adaptations. She wrote more than twenty novels, including Strangers on a Train, The Price of Salt, and The Talented Mr. Ripley, as well as numerous short stories.

About Simon Vance

Simon Vance (a.k.a. Robert Whitfield) is an award-winning actor and narrator. He has earned more than fifty Earphones Awards and won the prestigious Audie Award for best narration thirteen times. He was named Booklist’s very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and has been named an AudioFile Golden Voice as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks over almost thirty years, beginning when he was a radio newsreader for the BBC in London. He is also an actor who has appeared on both stage and television.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark on August 18, 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.......more

Goodreads review by Olga on 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 ir......more

Goodreads review by Lotte on September 06, 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 continuous......more

Goodreads review by Dave on February 08, 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......more

Quotes

“A curious and absorbing novel.” New York Times Book Review

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