Reviews for Deep Water

The average rating for Deep Water based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2021-02-11 00:00:00 Sam Schwabe As a psychological thriller lover I was asking myself the other day why I haven't read any of the *Queen of Psychological Thrillers* books yet and of course I'm speaking of Patricia Highsmith. Overdrive had a copy of Deep Water and since a movie is in production I figured I'd give it a whirl and I was not at all disappointed. Talk about a dysfunctional marriage, wow! Vic and Melinda Van Allen's marriage seems to be at a crossroads. Mostly because Melinda likes to bed various young men. As if that isn't bad enough but she also doesn't feel the need to hide her transgressions often openly right in front of Vic and their friends. His friends can't understand his nonchalance about it and urge him to take a stand. Melinda often invites these men back to their home for her and Vic to entertain. Vic doing most of the cooking and serving while Melinda drinks herself into oblivion while dancing the night away with their guest. Yet, the most troubling aspect, is that neither seems to want to get a divorce. The amiable Vic seems to accept his wife's indiscretions but inside his mind he has waged war and how far is he willing to go to win? For a book that originally published in 1957 this has aged fairly well. I have to say that I found Vic quite amusing and Melinda satisfyingly horrible. I absolutely had to see how the chips were going to fall for these two and I was not disappointed. Their daughter Trixie being the one person I felt sorry for. Now I understand the accolades that Highsmith receives. I have to imagine this book was very taboo back in it's day and that makes me only respect this author more. 4 stars!

Review # 2 was written on 2017-03-13 00:00:00 Ben Swartz A stunning psychological thriller, Patricia Highsmith's Deep Water serves a delicious tale of infidelity, jealousy, while dancing between the boundaries of human propriety and probing the psyche of a suffering husband at the end of his tethers. This appealed to me from the get go, a more congenial anti-hero I cannot remember reading. It has the same kind of quivering bite that people found fascinating in Gone Girl, and to a lesser extent in the Girl on the Train only with more restraint and refinement than the books aforementioned. Oh, boy!