A recent post by nihilistic_kid inspired me to look up Patricia Highsmith’s Wikipedia entry, which led me in turn to this Telegraph interview with Highsmith’s former lover Marijane Meaker. Meaker describes how, following their final break-up, she and Highsmith purged their feelings by fictionally murdering one another:
Highsmith wrote a bitter book, The Cry of the Owl, killing off the character based on Meaker. “I am knifed to death—for several pages—at the end,” chuckles Meaker, who wrote a similar book: “I gave Pat her father’s name—Plangman—and murdered her.”