The author of numerous short story collections and novels, including Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley, American-born fiction writer Patricia Highsmith enjoyed greater critical and commercial success in England, France, and Germany than in her native country. As Jeff Weinstein speculated in the Village Voice Literary Supplement, the reason for this is that Highsmith's books have been "misplaced"--relegated to the mystery and suspense shelves instead of being allowed to take their rightful place in the literature section. As far as her ardent admirers in the United States and abroad are concerned, Highsmith was more than just a superb crime novelist. In fact, declared Brigid Brophy in Don't Never Forget: Collected Views and Reviews, "there's the injustice. . . . As a novelist tout court [Highsmith is] excellent. . . . Highsmith and Simenon are alone in writing books which transcend the limits of the genre while staying strictly inside its...