STRANGERS ON A TRAIN by Highsmith, Patricia - 1950

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950. Very good in very good jacket.. First edition of Highsmith's debut novel, a slow-burn thriller in which one murder becomes a prelude to a larger psychological drama in which anyone can become a killer. A chance meeting on a train between strangers sets into motion a series of events that slowly unravel the sanity of both in this acclaimed mystery. Rather than pursuing a puzzle to be solved, Highsmith instead teases out the lurking darkness in her hero/anti-hero by exquisitely small degrees. Also the inspiration for Hitchcock's classic film (but with a different ending), STRANGERS ON A TRAIN is one of the most memorable midcentury US American entries in crime fiction, and quite difficult to find in a nice example of the original dust jacket. 8'' x 5.75''. Original light blue cloth stamped in navy. In original price-clipped color pictorial dust jacket designed by Irv Docktor. Fore-edge machine deckle. [8], 299, [1] pages. Jacket with shallow chipping to spine ends, wear to edges with a number of short closed tears, sunned spine. Book also with sunned spine, light bumping to extremities, faint foxing to edges.