A Penknife In My Heart is a 1958 novel by Nicholas Blake, which works the always intriguing premise of two strangers in a pact to "dispose of each other's rubbish", as main character Stuart Hammer crudely puts it.
So popular is the novel by Patricia Highsmith, Strangers On A Train (and the Hitchcock film of the same name) that she is the one all others are measured by, but it's always interesting to read permutations of a theme. I recently reviewed Stalemate by Evelyn Berkman.
Stuart Hammer sees Ned Stowe across a crowded English pub. He can tell from reading lips Ned is with his young mistress Laura, and reluctant to return to his wife Helena. Stuart also has someone he wishes would go away - his Uncle Herbert who employs him at a Midland factory. Stuart conspires to befriend Ned and suggests they remove each others impediment to happiness. It is about to be discovered that Stuart has vastly overspent on a lavish lifestyle, and his Uncle whom he portrays as miserly and evil, is about to find out. Helena is also seen as a manipulative harpy, life with Laura would be splendid if he were free. Neither of them would have any motive, any connection with his victim whatsoever, and an agreement is made. Stuart soon fulfills his part in what seems a foolproof plan - a burglar will break in while Ned is away - however, that night Helena is not sleeping alone. This story is really Ned's, as the police question him and he debates about getting out of his end. It's too late for that now. Although he attempts, he's unable to run Uncle Herbert over - with Herbert's own car - but luckily, fate steps in. Now there is nothing left but the guilt and shame, the endless recriminations of hindsight when it's discovered that these two people were actually not all that bad. Time cannot be reversed but can you live with your new future?
This was a superior version on the theme, full of suspense and low on violence. The torment is all psychological. If you can get away with it - would you be free or condemn yourself to misery? This ramped up into what I thought was a predictable ending, but I was so wrong. The thrilling ending was perfect, right up to the very last line. Satisfying.
Nicholas Blake is the pseudonym of Cecil Day-Lewis, a poet laureate of England and the father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Among his many thrillers are the intelligent crime novels featuring Nigel Strangeways. He mentions in an author's note before the contents that when he wrote this he had not read Highsmith's Strangers On A Train (1950), or seen the film. To his consternation, he had chosen the same two names for his characters, which he changed, and Miss Highsmith was "charmingly sympathetic" over the coincidence.
1958 / Paperback / 174 pages
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