Edith's Diary is not a thriller, but a tautly written tale of one ordinary woman whose life is slipping out of control and whose grip on reality is loosening. It is considered by many to be Highsmith's masterpiece.

Highsmith's novels are peerlessly disturbing ...bad dreams that keep us thrashing for the rest of the night The New Yorker Edith's fall takes the form of a psychological chiller, but there is also something larger, the poignancy of her struggle not to go under. She is betrayed by such ordinary dreams New York Times Highsmith probes to the very core of her heroine with a controlled ferocity and single-mindedness that illumines every page of her novel. It is a masterly book, a haunting book, a book that lingers long in the memory and constantly disturbs and delights. -- The Times The Times A work of extraordinary force and feeling ... her strongest, her most imaginative and by far her most substantial novel -- New Yorker New Yorker As original, as funny, as cleverly written and as moving as any novel I have read since I started reviewing -- Auberon Waugh The Evening Standard Edith's Diary is certainly one of the saddest novels I ever read, but it is also one of the mere twenty or so that I would say were perfect, unimprovable masterpieces -- A.N Wilson Daily Telegraph