The Cry of the Owl

The Cry of the Owl is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith, the eighth of her 22 novels. It was first published in the US in 1962 by Harper & Row and in the UK by Heinemann the following year. It explores, in the phrase of critic Brigid Brophy, "the psychology of the self-selected victim". Composition Highsmith wrote The Cry of the Owl between April 1961 and February 1962. She considered it to be one of her weaker efforts, calling its principal character "rather square ... a polite sitting duck for more evil characters, and a passive bore". Highsmith drew on her own experience as a stalker; years before, when employed by a New York City store, she became obsessed with a woman she had waited on. She adapted these events for her novel The Price of Salt (1952). The setting for this book is much like the area where Highsmith was currently living in New Hope, Pennsylvania.