The Crime Writer

In 1964, the eccentric American novelist Patricia Highsmith is hiding out in a cottage in Suffolk in order to concentrate on her writing. She has other motives too - a secret romance with a married woman based in London and her dislike of the fame and attention that has followed her since her first novel was made into a Hitchcock film and her fourth, The Talented Mr Ripley, was published to such acclaim.

Unfortunately it soon becomes clear that Pat is not alone: all her demons have come with her. Prowlers, sexual obsessives, frauds, imposters, suicides and murderers: the tropes of her fictions clamour for her attention, rudely intruding on her peaceful Suffolk retreat. After the arrival of Ginny, an enigmatic young journalist who would like to interview her, events begin to turn catastrophically dark, ending in a fatal accident. Except, as always in Pat's troubled and eventful life, perhaps things are not as they seem.....

Jill Dawson is renowned for her novels revisiting known stories and famous figures, such as the wildboy of Aveyron, the poet Rupert Brooke or, in her Orange Prize-shorlisted novel FRED AND EDIE, the hanged murderess Edith Thompson. Here she fuses biographical facts about Highsmith's life with audacious recreations of Highsmith's much exercised fantasies of murder, madness and revenge. The result is a sexy, dazzling tale that touches the darkest reaches of the human imagination.

“A beautifully crafted and utterly riveting blend of fact and fiction about a fascinating 20th-century figure.-- Carla McKay , Daily Mail”

Praise for Jill Dawson's The Tell-Tale Heart: - -

Immediately engrossing . . . Dawson navigates this half-mystical territory with a freshness and wit that belie a seasoned novelist's careful skill . . . It seems that the human heart, like the richly evoked Fens which the author knows so well, holds more secrets than we might think. - The Times

Dawson knows how to pluck the heartstrings too. The moment when Drew's mother listens to her dead son's heart beating in Patrick's chest is devastating . . . the flashback leading up to the hanging of one of Drew's forefathers is one of the highlights in a narrative that keeps you guessing. - Sunday Telegraph

[A] searching and gently philosophical novel poised on the edge of the darkness that surrounds a human life . . . Perhaps a better life has been swapped for a lesser life; but, as this moving and intriguing novel suggests, the final sum amounts to a lot more than zero. - Literary Review

A tender and thoughtful novel which explores some fundamental questions about identity and the symbolism of the heart. - Daily Mail

Dawson . . . is an elegant but easy writer. She swiftly hooks the reader in with strong, convincing narrative voices, pacy dialogue, carefully crafted prose and an engagingly dramatic plot . . . A thought-provoking [book] about identity, relationships, fate and what we would change if given a second chance. - Sunday Express

Not since Graham Swift's Waterland has anyone written as passionately about history, education, love and belonging in the Fen region of England. A beautifully crafted novel by an outstanding writer who gracefully enters the heart and soul of all her characters. - Caryl Phillips

An uncanny and atmospheric novel from a skilful storyteller. - Hilary Mantel

Jill Dawson's novels include Fred & Edie, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award, Watch Me Disappear, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize, and The Crime Writer, winner of the East Anglian Book of the Year. An award-winning poet, she has also edited several poetry and short story anthologies.

She has held many fellowships, including the Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia. In 2008 she founded a mentoring scheme for new writers, Gold Dust, and in 2020 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She lives in the Cambridgeshire Fens.

In 1964, the eccentric American novelist Patricia Highsmith is hiding out in a cottage in Suffolk to concentrate on her writing and escape her fans. She has another motive too - a secret romance with a married lover based in London. But her lover keeps failing to visit, a stalker seems to be on her trail and after a young woman claiming to be a journalist comes to interview her, events take a catastrophic turn. Or do they? As ever in Highsmith's troubled life, perhaps matters are not quite as they first appear . . . Masterfully recreating Highsmith's fantasies of murder and madness, Jill Dawson probes the darkest reaches of the human imagination in this novel - at once a brilliant portrait of a writer and an atmospheric, emotionally charged, riveting tale. Jill Dawson is the author of eight novels, including Fred and Edie , which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award and the Orange Prize, The Great Lover and, most recently, The Tell-Tale Heart . An award-winning poet, she has also edited six anthologies of poetry and short stories.

In 1964, the eccentric American novelist Patricia Highsmith is hiding out in a cottage in Suffolk in order to concentrate on her writing. She has other motives too - a secret romance with a married woman based in London and her dislike of the fame and attention that has followed her since her first novel was made into a Hitchcock film and her fourth, The Talented Mr Ripley, was published to such acclaim. Unfortunately it soon becomes clear that Pat is not alone: all her demons have come with her. Prowlers, sexual obsessives, frauds, imposters, suicides and murderers: the tropes of her fictions clamour for her attention, rudely intruding on her peaceful Suffolk retreat. After the arrival of Ginny, an enigmatic young journalist who would like to interview her, events begin to turn catastrophically dark, ending in a fatal accident. Except, as always in Pat's troubled and eventful life, perhaps things are not as they seem.....Jill Dawson is renowned for her novels revisiting known stories and famous figures, such as the wildboy of Aveyron, the poet Rupert Brooke or, in her Orange Prize-shorlisted novel FRED AND EDIE, the hanged murderess Edith Thompson. Here she fuses biographical facts about Highsmith's life with audacious recreations of Highsmith's much exercised fantasies of murder, madness and revenge. The result is a sexy, dazzling tale that touches the darkest reaches of the human imagination.

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