Deep Water: The compulsive classic thriller from the author of THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY

Now a major film starring Oscar-winner Ben Affleck and Golden Globe-nominee Ana de Armas.

If I really don't like somebody, I kill him . . . You remember Malcolm McRae, don't you?'

To everyone around them, Melinda and Vic Van Allen are the perfect couple - young, wealthy and attractive. But when their love sours, their mind games reach a twisted, dangerous climax.

Melinda Van Allen is beautiful, headstrong and sexy. Unfortunately for Vic Van Allen, she is his wife. Their love has soured, and Melinda takes pleasure in flaunting her many affairs to her husband. When one of her lovers is murdered, Vic hints to her latest conquest that he was responsible. As rumours spread about Vic's vicious streak, fiction and reality start to converge. It's only a matter of time before Vic really does have blood on his hands.

I have many favourite Highsmith books, so picking just one to celebrate was never going to be easy. I considered cheating by choosing the Ripliad (being all five in the series about her upwardly mobile murderer) but that would have meant neglecting her outstanding standalones, including her remarkable debut, Strangers on a Train, and the existential masterpiece that is This Sweet Sickness.

In the end, I settled on Deep Water, one of Highsmith's most successful thrillers, told from the perspective of cuckolded husband Vic Van Allen, pillar of his small community, publisher of obscure texts, and keeper of snails. After the accidental death of one of his wife's lovers, Vic starts the rumour that he might have murdered the man. The rumour becomes a daydream, and the daydream becomes a plot to carry out just such a murder. - Sarah Hilary on her favourite Patricia Highsmith book.