THE CAVE

Dutch novelist Krabbé—a contemporary noir master who’s a cross between Patricia Highsmith and Jim Thompson—is best known for his eerie novel The Golden Egg, which was filmed (brilliantly) as The Vanishing. This 1997 thriller (also recently filmed) is an artfully structured tale of virtual innocence abroad: a keen psychological study of the appropriation of a vulnerable personality by its stronger counterpart. The accidental friendship that links passive geologist Egon Wagter with charismatic, sinister Axel van de Graff (“an innovator in Dutch crime, with an organization that spanned ten countries or more”) leads Egon to southeast Asia, a drug-related nexus of interlocking intrigues, and a satisfyingly nasty climax in “the cave” that has long awaited him.

Krabbé revs up the tension expertly via several ingenious shifts in viewpoint and carefully placed surprises, in a fabulously plotted melodrama that will doubtless inspire another terrific movie.