Kate Evans

And she went and she looked at this woman who was married with children and had imagined this entire affair, really.

You know, in the novel, she imagines an entire affair that begins between this young shop girl and this elegant married woman.

But it was all triggered by this one chance encounter in the store.

It's funny, I thought initially, I mean, it is different, but I mean, I started trying to read Carol a number of years ago, expecting to get the normal Patricia Highsmith sort of... Thrills.

Thrills.

And put it down because I could not, it was sort of drifting and I couldn't understand where it was going.

And it was only when I pushed myself...

you know to to finish that the suspense was there it just took a lot it was a very slow burn as you feel that suspense building between you know that the forces that are going to come to bear on this young these young lovers you know uh in terms of you know what's at stake the idea that the the the married woman who begins an affair with therese you know carol she you know she is divorcing a husband she's got a daughter

There's going to be a custody battle.

He has got private detectives following her.

And this idea, if it's revealed that she is a lesbian, then that will be potentially it.

She will never see her child again.

Any chance of joint custody or custody goes out the window.

So there is suspense there, but it's a different type of suspense.

You know, it's not a murder and who did it and whether they can get away with it.

This is the suspense of whether this couple you fool, you care about them.

It takes you a while to care about them.

It took me a long while before I cared about Carol in particular.

I found her very aloof and standoffish.

But eventually, when I understood why, I cared a lot about whether we were going to see some form of happy ending.