Patricia Highsmith, in Good Company (and Not a Ripley in Sight)

Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995) used to come up in (my) conversation most often as an example of a US-born author far more prized in the UK and on the continent of Europe than in the US. The American reading public, usually attracted to authors whose books have been successfully adapted for the big screen, seemed to make an exception for Highsmith, whose first novel, Strangers on a Train (1950), was almost immediately turned into one of Alfred Hitchcock's most memorable films (1951). She went on to publish a total of 22 novels (including The Talented Mr Ripley [1955] and four follow-ups) and seven volumes of short stories, and many of the novels were filmed during her lifetime. US publishers offered rack-sized paperback editions of Highsmith only now and then, whereas she's been a staple of comparable editions in the UK, France and German-speaking countries for 40 years or so. (She lived in Europe from 1963 until her death.)

The success of Anthony Minghella's 1999 film version of The Talented Mr Ripley seemed finally to put Highsmith on the map for US readers--and her arrival in multiple new US ebook editions this year can only help.

A couple of months ago, Highsmith's superb first collection of short fiction, Eleven (1970; also known as The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories) and one of her more accessible stand-alone novels, the twice-filmed Cry of the Owl (1962), appeared in Kindle and EPUB editions.

Now comes the newest Highsmith book to be available for Kindle and nook: The Tremor of Forgery (1969), often cited as her best novel--so cited, for example, by Graham Greene, who knew a thing or two about moral ambiguities and 'apprehensive' emotional climates in the world of expatriates. In atmosphere, Tremor will remind some readers of the Camus of The Stranger (also known as The Outsider or L'étranger), others of Paul Bowles (The Sheltering Sky; Bowles was another US-born novelist to whom international readers were more loyal than were readers stateside)--and not just because of Tremor's North African setting. Highsmith's protagonist is Howard Ingham, an American writer who goes to Tunisia to work on a screenplay and, when the film project collapses, stays on to work on a novel. He becomes entangled in (or, it seems at times, liberated by) moral ambiguities. There's a crime or two, and there's seepage in both directions through whatever membrane might separate Ingham's life and work.

For fans of Highsmith (or of Bowles, Greene and Camus), or of 'international' fiction in general, The Tremor of Forgery is a promising choice. But let me mention two other crime classics now available as ebooks, from two grand masters of the Golden Age of crime fiction in Great Britain.

First, Green for Danger (1944) by Christianna Brand (1907-1988). Murder in an operating room during World War II. The quintessential fair-play classic puzzle, and Brand's best-known book. Memorably filmed (1946) with Alastair Sim as Inspector Cockrill.

Second, The Franchise Affair (1948) by Josephine Tey (1896-1952). Half-serious caveat: this is the most nearly Highsmithian novel by the always inventive Tey--and, curiously, the only Tey novel currently available as an ebook in the US. Still, it was named by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990 as one of the 100 best crime novels of all time. A young woman accuses two other women, mother and daughter, of holding her prisoner and mistreating her for a month on their remote country estate. Is she the victim of false imprisonment and abuse, or are they the victims of a false accusation?

Free eBooks: A Few Links

Nowadays ebook retailers offer (typically) thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of free books, usually as an incentive to attract customers who will, presumably, spend money on reading devices, 'paid' books and other merchandise. I'm going to assume that regular customers know how to find the free ebooks at their retailers' websites (e.g., by using each site's bestseller lists and search engines).

I want to make sure that you also have access to a few websites that offer free ebooks in multiple formats. (Note, however, that not all books are available in all formats.) Books are typically in the public domain (more about this later), and all are offered 'DRM-free', i.e., do not contain additional code to prevent file-sharing. (Among other things, this means that you can use software like Calibre to convert files to different formats.)

First, what I'll call 'the Gutenberg family': the Project Gutenberg sites for the US, Canada and Australia. Think of the US site as your free download site of first resort, and the two others as complementary sites that focus on filling in gaps left by the US site. (The US site offers only books that are in the public domain [i.e., no longer under copyright] in the US. The duration of copyright is different in different countries. In general, the laws of the country in which you are located determine what it is legal for you to download.)

Each Gutenberg site includes information on ebook formats (generally EPUB for reading devices other than Kindle), the mechanics of downloading, and the conditions under which it is legal for you to download ebooks from the site.

There is also at least one French-language site with an admirable breadth of offerings: Ebooks Libres et Gratuits. Most users will need to go to the search engine  for the site, which can be found here. (Note that files labelled 'Mobipocket' can be read on a Kindle.) All materials are in French; they may or may not be in the public domain in your country.

Let me add one final link--a site where I frequently find things that are available for free nowhere else: Munsey's. Munsey's is where you'll find more free pulp fiction and more free Henry James--and quite a bit in between--than anywhere else on the Web. The database may not have the sleekest interface you've ever seen, but there's a lot to love at this site.

One tip, applicable to all these sites: if you're going to be reading your free ebooks on a tablet, it may be easiest for you to browse these sites and download your books using the same tablet you're going to read on. This saves you one subsequent file transfer (e.g., laptop to tablet).

Also, some ebooks, conspicuous classics, are just elusive. You may want to use your usual Web search engine... always including, of course, a term like 'EPUB', 'Kindle' or 'ebook' with the title.

Finally, you may want to investigate ebook lending (friend to friend, as offered for Kindle and nook users), and borrowing from public libraries (long available via nook and recently announced for Kindle users in the US as well).

As always, I encourage you to use the comments function below. Be sure to mention your own favorite sites....

John Dickson Carr on Kindle and iBooks

John Dickson Carr (1906-1977), among the crime novelists I grew up reading, is the best of the best. US-born but with close ties to the UK, Carr is one of the stars of the Golden Age of crime fiction.

He was the grand master of the 'locked room' mystery (his The Hollow Man [1935] defines the entire sub-genre), author of some 80 books of surprisingly uniform quality, cerebral even when he made the reader laugh (his most-used pseudonym was wrongly suspected of belonging to P. G. Wodehouse), a master of both 'contemporary' and historical mystery fiction. (Incidentally, the first chapter of his first 'historical', The Bride of Newgate, measures up very well to the best of Dumas, and all of Carr's 'Victorian melodramas' are good, too.) Carr even experimented (on rare occasions, but successfully) with such unexpected themes as time travel and witchcraft. His place in my personal list of 26 favorite authors is very secure.

And now you can read him in ebook format. Thanks to the Langtail Press, six of Carr's classic novels are now available--all 'contemporaries', most featuring one or the other of his star detectives, Dr. Gideon Fell (He Who Whispers, The Problem of the Green Capsule) or Sir Henry Merrivale (The Plague Court Murders, And So to Murder, She Died a Lady), with one spectacular non-series novel, The Burning Court, thrown into the mix. (I've provided links to Kindle editions, but all six are also available on iBooks, and Carr is 'priced to sell' in both formats.)

And just in case you're not a fan of locked-room puzzles... neither am I: I just like John Dickson Carr.

Give him a try.