[2] 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.

[5] Following a painful divorce from his wife Nickie, Robert Forester leaves New York and moves to small-town Langley, Pennsylvania, where he develops an obsession for 23-year-old Jenny Thierolf.

He spies on her through her kitchen window, enjoying "the girl's placid temperament, her obvious affection for her rather ramshackle house, her contentment with her life".

Jenny sees their chance meeting as an act of fate and breaks off her engagement to hot-tempered Greg Wyncoop, who is resentful and begins spying on the pair; he plans to learn more about Robert so as to find a way to get even with him.

Robert is offered a promotion at work that requires him to relocate to another city, and he hopes this will put an end to Jenny's advances, which are making him increasingly uneasy.

Jenny comes to believe that Robert has murdered her former fiancé and, in spite of loving him, accepts that he represents death and that it is preordained that she should die; she commits suicide.

But once it starts rolling the tale accelerates rapidly, dangers and suspense pile up and the reader goes along very willingly to the conclusion.

"[6] In 1967, British writer and critic Brigid Brophy stated that, of the novels written in the last twenty years, five or six stood out, including Highsmith's The Cry of the Owl and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita.

[1] Highsmith's novel was the premise for the French film Le Cri du hibou (1987) directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Mathilda May.

[8] A third film adaptation written and directed by Jamie Thraves and starring Julia Stiles and Paddy Considine was released in 2009.