Anxiety and Evil in the Writings of Patricia Highsmith

Drawing extensively on the under-explored Highsmith Archive, Peters suggests that the usual generic distinctions-crime fiction, mystery, suspense-have been largely unhelpful in elucidating Patricia Highsmith's novels. Peters adopts a psychoanalytic approach to show that specific disturbances within her text have resulted in Highsmith's writing remaining resistant to explication and to the more sophisticated interpretative strategies that would seek to position her within a specific genre.