- A quiet, middle-aged couple living in Chelsea start to receive threatening letters through the post - and then things take a sinister turn as their beloved poodle, Tina, is kidnapped. Should they comply and pay up the ransom?
- Patricia Highsmith is a powerful writer with a great ability to glue you to your seat when viewing a movie version of one of her novels, but personally I find her novels unreadable, due to her extreme verbosity. No need to worry about that when viewing the "Armchair Thriller" version of "A Dog's Ransom". You may not like what is being related, but you'll find it difficult to look away. Highsmith's view of the universe we live in is much like that of the "theatre of the absurd" writers like Sartre and Camus. It's a dangerous and unpredictable world we live in, where no one is to be trusted, and nothing taken at face value.
This story reflects that view entirely. A middle class couple with a comfortable income and life style have a pet white miniature poodle named "Tina". An emigre from Poland, who is not so well off, envies and resents them. More from revenge than profit, he kidnaps and kills their dog, but demands 200 pounds ransom. When that is paid, he demands another 100 pounds and gets it. Of course, the couple never learn the fate of their dog. The police when the episode is reported, essentially refuse to do anything, except for a rookie constable who undertakes to identify the perpetrator on his own time. This arouses the ire of one unsavoury detective, who resents the rookie because of his college education, but the rookie does identify the culprit with the help of his social worker girl friend. She refuses to reveal the man's location, however, and eventually breaks off with her friend, not wishing to be "involved". The rookie manages to locate the psychopathic Polish fellow eventually when he continues to harass the couple whose dog he killed with really disgustiing tricks. A fight ensues in which the man is killed, presumably by the young constable, but actually by the jealous detective. This fellow, a psychopath himself, kills the rookie and then goes on about his business. As one commentator remarked, there is no one is this story you can really entirely like, not even the dog.
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