About The Book

Originally published in 1964, and the winner of the CWA Best Foreign Novel Award, Patricia Highsmith’s The Two Faces of January is a chilling tale of suspense, suffused with her trademark slow, creeping unease.

In a grubby Athens hotel, Rydal Keener is bored and killing time with petty scams. But when he runs into another American, Chester MacFarland, dragging a man’s body down the hotel hall, Rydal impulsively agrees to help, perhaps because Chester looks like Rydal’s father. Then Rydal meets Colette, Chester’s younger wife, and, once captivated, becomes entangled in their sordid lives, as the drama marches to a shocking climax at the ruins of the labyrinth at Knossos.

Praise

“[A] classic psychological thriller.” —USA Today

“An offbeat, provocative and absorbing suspense novel.” —Anthony Boucher, The New York Times

“Patricia Highsmith is one of the few suspense writers whose work transcends genre.” —The Austin American-Statesman

“Her [most recent] novel goes far beyond the bounds of the ‘mystery,’ a genre label that has stuck to Highsmith’s work since her first, Strangers on a Train, in 1950. It is time she reached a wider audience.” —Carol Ames, Los Angeles Times

“Shifts of ground stand metaphor for shifts in relationship; psychology is beautifully interleaved with a gritty genius loci.” —Library Journal