Not as provocative as The Talented Mr Ripley or as dangerously sinister as Strangers on a Train.

Part murder mystery and part mid 20th century travelogue Patricia Highsmith's The Two Faces of January (1964) is a ideal poolside companion. Sun drenched locations, from Athens and the Corinth Canal to Crete and the Temple of Knossos, whisk you away to the romance (and danger) of a more exotic Europe of the past.

The novel follows three key characters whose lives become tangled in the kind of personality crisis which Highsmith delivers so well. Evading the police in the USA Chester MacFarland and his wife Collette travel to Europe only to become embroiled in a further police hunt once they meet fellow con-artist Rydal Keener. Rydal is immediately drawn to Chester, who reminds him of his late father, and to Collette who bears a resemblance to Agnes; Rydal's first love.

The two mens' strangely symbiotic relationship is strained by the claustrophobic love triangle which develops in the sweltering Greek heat between themselves and Collette.

The novel is at its best as the boundaries in relationships between the three friends blur. The two anti-hero leads are hard to understand at times but work as psychotic loners from the same mould as Highsmith's own Tom Ripley.  

The Two Faces of January is not as provocative as The Talented Mr Ripley or as dangerously sinister as Strangers on a Train but in this novel Highsmith packs a dramatic punch of murder, blackmail and violence.