Currently reading
A London Family, 1870-1900: A Trilogy
The Cellist of Sarajevo
Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher
All the Names
A History of the World in 100 Objects
Down the Garden Path
Virtue Betray'd, Or, Anna Bullen
Year of Wonders
Swallows and Amazons
Illusion in java
read this in one sitting on the train from Portland to Seattle. I don't know why it has not occurred to me before how much Bowles' style is like Patricia Highsmith. This story, about a couple traveling in Central America and meeting a charming but disturbed young man, has all the hallmarks of Highsmith's work: mounting tension, characters mistrusting their own intuition, the randomness of the crime (yep, it could have been you!), and general creepiness in the midst of normal everyday life. One difference though is that Highsmith often encourages a repugnant liking of the criminal and Bowles doesn't do that. Bowle's stories are about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.