Cassie McCullough

Tom glanced behind him and saw the man coming out of the green cage heading his way.

We're arriving halfway through the first scene.

You know, it's already on.

And this is what one of the listeners from the ABC Book Club Facebook group was also taken by.

And that's the economy of that set up.

Marie or Mari Peckham said,

that the first chapter where we follow Tom as he's walking, looking behind himself constantly, who or what is he escaping?

Why is he so nervous?

He's unstable and down on his luck and in a really dark place and almost on the run.

And the way Patricia Highsmith gets into the mind of Tom is what really got me into this story.

And then life offers him a lifeline and we enter the dark world he inhabits and it becomes darker.

And this is just chapter one.

Great one, Mari.

Yeah, an escape artist escaping from himself and constantly leaving identities behind.

Yeah, yeah.

Is that how you see it, Joanna?

What Joanna was pulling out when she was reading us those paragraphs from Carol as well, the sort of the danger of sexiness.

Oh, for the good old days.

Hey, you know?

Yeah, the psychopath you know, the psychopath you live with and you don't quite realise.