The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith*****

Reading Dates: 10–30 January 2026

Neil gave me The Tremor of Forgery as a Christmas present, mainly because I like Patricia Highsmith but also because this edition had a foreword by Denise Mina, whom I adore. Mina advises to a true Highsmith fan to go off the beaten Ripliad path to find her full potential. She is not wrong. Although I like the comfort of a known character – and Ripley is so well developed – The Tremor is my perfect book: nothing happens, but this is narrated as a page-turner. Spoilers: the narrator, Ingham, maybe murders someone, the six-day war happens nearby but far away, he almost marries the wrong person, a dog disappears and then appears, there is homoerotic tension that turns out to be a really beautiful friendship … All this, while Ingham is working in Tunisia on a novel.

The themes also tie in with my interest in consciousness while traveling in a foreign place. The sun, the sea, the effects of this culture on the traveller are beautifully, and very subtly, portrayed. I loved it.