Language, Individual & Society, Volume 17, 2023

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to examine narrative tension and the stylistics of crime in Patricia Highsmith’s early psychological crime thriller, The Blunderer (1956). The article is divided into three parts. In the introductory section the Author outlines the background of Patricia Highsmith’s literary output. The second part is devoted to the generic elements of The Blunderer. The third and simultaneously main part of the article brings into focus the narrative perspectives of three protagonists of the novel, being three actors of the crime drama: the murderer Melchior Kimmel, the guilt-stricken innocent suspect Walter Stackhouse and the detective Lawrence Corby. The research proves that the narration of Highsmith’s novel is not homogenous but constitutes an intriguing amalgam of various consciousnesses and conflicting narrative positions. This reflects both the structural and thematic complexity of the novel which builds and develops the suspenseful tension affecting the narrates and the reader.