Found in the Street Book

They say a watched pot never boils. Of course, if you stare for long enough it does - but the tipping point can be tricky to spot. Such is the subtle crescendo of many of Patricia Highsmith's suspense novels - then the heat gradually diminishes, and in time the surface grows calm.

Jack is a commercial artist who loses his wallet in a New York street. It is found and returned (contents and cash intact) by an older local man, Ralph, a loner who is marked out as slightly kooky from the outset, his canine companion being named God - because it spells 'dog' backwards.

Ralph is already surreptitiously "watching over" Elsie, a vivacious young waitress who lives in the neighbourhood. Jack and his beautiful art-dealer wife Natalia cross paths with Elsie - this disconcerts Ralph, who suspects their motives. In fact they land Elsie the break that leads to her meteoric rise as a fashion model; but Ralph resorts to ever more intrusive methods to "protect" her from their corruptive influence.

Both Jack and Natalia fall in love with Elsie, Jack at least platonically; but Ralph is convinced he has stumbled upon distasteful aspects of their private lives. A nightshift worker, he becomes persecuted by rowdy neighbours and grows increasingly unstable.

I should not have been surprised that the lid would blow off this simmering pressure-cooker - but when it did it I wasn't ready. To add insult to injury the author delivers the explosive news with all the matter-of-factness that Tom Ripley despatches those who inadvertently thwart his ambitions.

Through credible characters and ordinary life, Patricia Highsmith succeeds with her usual skill to create a gripping tale of suspense. Interestingly, she shuns the temptation to make a mystery of the denouement - a certain purity of craft that I feel is right. After the climax, the bubbles gently subside.