Compelling and weird tale of woman planning her own murder and finding the right man to perform the deed. Spark's Catholic interests are suggested in this satanic story but who is the devil?

I like M. Kitchell's review below - the protagonist is "not a character, she is a concept." ( )

I enjoyed this book. It was a bit different from all the other stories I've read by Muriel Spark, darker and more morbid than what I am used to from her. In this story a woman takes a vacation from work and makes all sorts of bizarre preparations as she is leaving, pissing off people along the way and acting so odd that no one can quite figure her out. She's on a mission, and has her victim in her sights, even though she does not seem to know what he even looks like. The ending is rather clever, I thought, and the story reminded me a bit of the sorts of twists Stephen King writes. ( )

I think this has immediately become one of my favourite books. Actually perfect.

Intense, compact study of an unbalanced 34-year-old woman who will wind up murdered, as laid out at the beginning. A relentless death spiral, likened to The Blind Owl and The Turn of the Screw. Spark's pick of all her books. ( )

Con estilo descarnado y seco, Muriel Spark narra en El asiento del conductor las últimas horas de Lise, una turista nórdica que se va de vacaciones a un país meridional del que nunca regresará. Como en alguna ocasión declaró la escritora escocesa, su intención al escribir fue la de «aterrorizar deleitando» máxima que se cumple de modo magistral en esta turbadora novela.