Highsmith, Patricia

Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

An excellent compilation
The Final Volume on the "Crime Novels" Series
More Noir
This is a Great Collection
Great Collection, Attractively Packaged

Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America)
Robert Polito , Patricia Highsmith , charles Willeford , David Goodis , and Chester Himes
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)
Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man (Library of America)
Later Novels and Other Writings: The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback /Double Indemnity / Selected Essays and Letters (Library of America)
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Crime Stories and Other Writings (Library of America)

ASIN: 1883011493

Amazon.com

The best American crime novels deserve their place in the pantheon of American literature, but they hold special interest for cinema enthusiasts, who can both compare them to the movies they became and can roll imaginary films of the stories in their minds. Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s is the second of Library of America's two-volume anthology of underground U.S. fiction. The first anthology featured works from the 1930s and '40s that had been made into classic films noir. This volume focuses on fiction written after the crime genre had acquired conventions that younger writers toyed with and sometimes broke. The movies made from such stories were equally radical.

Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley is the source for René Clément's bristling Purple Noon, a movie that features Alain Delon's quintessential performance. David Goodis's Down There inspired François Truffaut's neo-noir masterpiece Shoot the Piano Player. Jim Thompson, the brilliant author who scripted The Killing and Paths of Glory for Stanley Kubrick, wrote several novels that have been turned into movies, including The Grifters and The Getaway. He is represented here by one of his most uncompromising works, The Killer Inside Me, which was filmed by Burt Kennedy in 1976. Charles Willeford's Pick-Up and Chester Himes's The Real Cool Killers have not yet been made into movies, but the blistering prose and nihilistic worlds of these authors, and of all the writers represented in this volume, is astonishingly cinematic. This lovely hardcover edition contains biographical, textual, and explanatory notes.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent compilation.......2007-01-07

The other reviewers misunderstand "Pick Up", (****warning -- spoiler****) which is a fascinating novel because the narrator is mentally disturbed and completely unreliable. This fact explains the "twist" ending, a number of apparent editing errors and the unlikely events that occur throughout.

The Final Volume on the "Crime Novels" Series.......2005-11-03

"Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950's" is the second and last volume of the hardboiled anthology published by the Library of America starting with the volume devoted to the genre in the 30's and 40's. This follow-up continues the saga of run-down characters hardened by experience and tough luck. The familiar cast of roguish males, femme fatales, and temperamental and violent detectives set the stage for a diverse and entertaining ride into the depths of the underworld.

"The Killer Inside Me" - Jim Thompson's most popular work is a memorable tale of a Texas law enforcer with a sinister past whose dark and psychotic nature is cunningly veiled behind a genial facade that barely contains "the sickness" which the main character has successfully concealed. A sudden turn of events unleashes the beast inside leading to a tragic odyssey of disillusion, violence, and murder. Pioneering in it's time for revealing the inner mind of the serial killer, the bracing prose and chilling character development makes this work one of the best in the genre.

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" - Tom Ripley is a con artist successfully making ends meet through one of the most reprehensible professions in New York City. A drifter and social outcast, one night in a bar he comes across a parent of an old acquaintance he barely recalls and is asked to do a favor. When he consents, his true nature unfolds in this story of murder, sexuality, and identity. Made into film in 1999 starring Matt Damon in the leading role, this cosmopolitan travelogue with a Decadent touch in the end introduced the world to one of the most oddly sympathetic and diabolical characters in Literature.

"Pick-Up" - Charles Willeford's winning style successfully conveys the sad and tragic tale of two lost alcoholics in the skid row section of San Francisco in the 1950's. Scene by depressing scene the author chronicles the faith, hope, and disillusionment of a couple whose time revolve around the contents of a bottle. The engrossing prose is marred unfortunately with an unbelievable twist and dissapointing ending.

"Down There" - The best selection of the entire series, "Down There" is an unforgettable account of a barroom piano man whose days of glory were ended by tragedy. Rendered indifferent to life by his soul-breaking experiences, he meets an equally lost soul and together they encounter adversity supporting each other as only similarly dark-fated individuals can. The heartbreaking ending still haunts me whenever I think about it.

"The Real Cool Killers" - Blaxploitation on speed! The talented Chester Himes vividly conjures this adrenaline yarn of two black detectives taking on the streets of Harlem in no holds barred action. Race, violence, and loathsome scenemakers feverishly grapple in this heat-inducing neon nocturne of urban society. Black humor at one of it's very finest.

Flawed but highly readable, these long forgotten and out of print works have been handsomely restored and given ample tribute by the laudable Library of America. Wanting to familiarize myself with the enduring genre, reading the two vols. of the "Crime Novels" series has been a pleasant introduction and reading experience to me.

More Noir.......2002-01-15

This book is the second volume in the Library of America set on American crime noir. I enjoyed the first volume so much that I decided to read the second one during Christmas break. Once again, the LOA has done a nice job of collecting a fine series of stories. These stories were written during the 1950's and 1960's. The book is nice to look at too; it's covered in red cloth with a cloth bookmark.

The first story is from the demented mind of Jim Thompson. This story, called The Killer Inside Me, is much better than The Grifters, a book by Thompson that I read some time ago. The Grifters seemed to be pretty one-dimensional with respect to its characters. This story is the exact opposite. A deputy sheriff in a Texas city has a terrible secret. He plays dumb on the outside, but inside he is a cunning sociopath. A long simmering resentment leads to a terrible revenge. Bodies quickly stack up as a result. This seems to be the story that Thompson is best known for and it's no surprise why. This is a dark, twisted tale with a grim ending.

Patricia Highsmith wrote a whole series of stories concerning Tom Ripley. The one included here is The Talented Mr. Ripley, probably better known due to the recent film with Matt Damon. This tale isn't as noir as I would have liked, but it still has enough twists and turns to keep anybody in suspense. Ripley is a low class conniver who ingratiates himself into a wealthy family who wants him to go to Italy and bring back their son. Ripley sees the potential for bucks and meets up with the kid and his lady friend. Of course, things take a turn for the worse and the bodies start stacking up. This story was probably my least favorite out of the entire collection.

The next story, Pick-Up, by Charles Willeford, is a depressing tale about two alcoholics who go bump in the night. The story follows the adventures of this alcoholic couple as they attempt suicide, check themselves into a mental hospital, and drink themselves into a stupor. After the female half of the couple dies in another suicide pact, the story switches to a prison tale. The end is somewhat of a twist, but really doesn't impact the story that much, in my opinion. Again, not really noir as noir can be, but still a fine story that can stand by itself.

Down There, by David Goodis, is a wild ride of a tale. Full of suspense and death, this is a great story that deserves to be included here. A family of ne'er-do-wells drags their talented piano-playing brother into their personal problems. The background information on Eddie, the piano player, is phenomenal. The tragedy that has struck him once is bound to repeat itself again. This story has great bit characters that really liven up the background.

The final story, by Chester Himes, is The Real Cool Killers. This is noir on acid: pornographic violence, massive doses of grim reality, and characters you're glad to see get killed. The story is set in Harlem and involves two tough cops named Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Someone kills a white guy in Harlem and the cops try and track them down. This story contains one of the funniest descriptions of a person falling off a balcony that I've ever read (and I've read a few, disturbingly enough). The writing has enough similes and metaphors to give Raymond Chandler an apoplectic fit. A cool story that certainly deserves a place in this book.

If you like noir, read these two LOA novels. They are long (together they're almost 2000 pages) but it is definitely worth the effort. These kinds of stories are just a great way to while away some free time and relieve stress.

This is a Great Collection.......2001-05-09

I usually don't like genre fiction, but this book is a great collection of "Noir" novels. Film buffs will be particularly interested in reading the novel on which "Shoot the Piano Player" was based, as well as the first "Mr. Ripley" novel (much nastier and darker than the recent film). Most highly recommended.

Great Collection, Attractively Packaged.......2000-07-08

This is a fine collection of crime novels in a durable, easy to read format. It starts off great with "The Killer Inside Me", the all time best trip through a killer's mind. The selections by Highsmith and Goodis, while not as intense as "Killer", are just as good in their own quieter ways. The only novel I would have left out is "Pickup"; while I like Willeford I think this is one of his more leaden performances. I also have a quibble with the volume's title, as the word "noir" has been beaten to death and doesn't tell us much about most of these books. "The Talented Mr. Ripley" owes more to Henry James than to Raymond Chandler, and "Killer" doesn't feature any dark city streets. Quibbles aside, however, the book is well worth buying.

Average customer rating:

BOOK PLOT CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS
Ripley: a dangerous Individual
He could be your next door neighbour
Totally Unbeleivable
A Not-So-Innocent Abroad

The Talented Mr. Ripley
Patricia Highsmith
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Ripley Under Ground
Ripley's Game
Ripley Under Water
The Boy Who Followed Ripley
Strangers on a Train

ASIN: 0679742298
Release Date: 1992-09-01

Amazon.com

One of the great crime novels of the 20th century, Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley is a blend of the narrative subtlety of Henry James and the self-reflexive irony of Vladimir Nabokov. Like the best modernist fiction, Ripley works on two levels. First, it is the story of a young man, Tom Ripley, whose nihilistic tendencies lead him on a deadly passage across Europe. On another level, the novel is a commentary on fictionmaking and techniques of narrative persuasion. Like Humbert Humbert, Tom Ripley seduces readers into empathizing with him even as his actions defy all moral standards.

The novel begins with a play on James's The Ambassadors. Tom Ripley is chosen by the wealthy Herbert Greenleaf to retrieve Greenleaf's son, Dickie, from his overlong sojourn in Italy. Dickie, it seems, is held captive both by the Mediterranean climate and the attractions of his female companion, but Mr. Greenleaf needs him back in New York to help with the family business. With an allowance and a new purpose, Tom leaves behind his dismal city apartment to begin his career as a return escort. But Tom, too, is captivated by Italy. He is also taken with the life and looks of Dickie Greenleaf. He insinuates himself into Dickie's world and soon finds that his passion for a lifestyle of wealth and sophistication transcends moral compunction. Tom will become Dickie Greenleaf--at all costs.

Unlike many modernist experiments, The Talented Mr. Ripley is eminently readable and is driven by a gripping chase narrative that chronicles each of Tom's calculated maneuvers of self-preservation. Highsmith was in peak form with this novel, and her ability to enter the mind of a sociopath and view the world through his disturbingly amoral eyes is a model that has spawned such latter-day serial killers as Hannibal Lecter. --Patrick O'Kelley

Book Description

In a chilling literary hall of mirrors, Patricia Highsmith introduces Tom Ripley. Like a hero in a latter-day Henry James novel, is sent to Italy with a commission to coax a prodigal young American back to his wealthy father. But Ripley finds himself very fond of Dickie Greenleaf. He wants to be like him--exactly like him. Suave, agreeable, and utterly amoral, Ripley stops at nothing--certainly not only one murder--to accomplish his goal. Turning the mystery form inside out, Highsmith shows the terrifying abilities afforded to a man unhindered by the concept of evil.

Customer Reviews:

BOOK PLOT CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS.......2007-02-06

THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY is about Tom Ripley, a strange, unhappy young man living in New York. From the beginning, we sense that there is something off about Tom, though it isn't until later on that we can begin to guess. He is persuaded by the wealthy business tycoon Herbert Greenleaf to go to Italy to persuade Greenleaf's son, Richard (Dickie) to come home and assume his family's responsibilities, while Greenleaf finances his voyage and expenses. Tom views the voyage as a chance to start over, and accepts. When Tom arrives in Italy, he is immediately taken by the generous, free-spirited Dickie and develops a quick hate for his the woman living with him, Marge Sherwood. The nature of their relationship is ambigiuos, but Marge's unrequited love for Dickie does not escape the watchful Tom. While Tom grows very popular with Dickie, Marge becomes very suspicious, and leads Dickie to question the nature of Tom's feelings toward him. Tom's desperate need to be liked by Dickie, whose independence he idolizes, leads to desperate feelings of rejection when Dickie begins to realize the strangeness of Tom's character. Full with contempt, Tom plans to kill Dickie on the train to San Remo, on their goodbye trip, and does so in a boat. He soon assumes Dickie's identity, writing to Marge and the elder Greenleafs and living Dickie's life, the life he wished he had. But soon the murder of the American and good friend of Dickie, Freddie Miles, leads the Italian police to "Richard Greenleaf". Tom has to navigate his way in and out of the police, while switching identities, and is forced to choose who he will ultimately become, and how far he will take his scheme.

Ripley: a dangerous Individual.......2007-01-29

It has been quite a few years since cracking this novel's covers once again. After seeing the excellent film adaptation with Matt Damon as the infamous Mr. Ripley, returning to the novel had been at the top of the list. As the "must read" pile slowly diminished, Highsmith's novel appeared and have read it with the same pleasure and suspense as the first encounter. This is a great `classic' in the truest sense of the word.

Having read all five novel's in the series, the first instalment is without question the best of the lot...a close second would have to be Ripley Underground and interestingly, the last novel of the series, The Boy Who followed Ripley. Let's face the fact that all of the novels are exceptional pieces of crime fiction, introducing the first schizophrenic murderer, a serial killer with a likable and charming personality. In the crime genre, at least, Tom Ripley is the anti-hero that everybody loves and wants to succeed despite his ruthless machinations to achieve his goals. In crime fiction, this was original, and never really has been duplicated since.

At the start of this novel, the reader recognizes that Ripley is a tad on the criminal side, engaging in tax fraud, realizing he would never cash the embezzled checks; he merely does it for the challenge and thrill. He's asked to go over seas to persuade a certain Dicky Greenleaf to come back to the States and join his family. Father Greenleaf pays all of Ripley's expenses and he travels abroad to the beautiful town of Mongibello, Italy. One incident leads to another; Dicky rejects Ripley's friendship over a frumpy girl, Marge, and, out of the blue, Tom murders him on a small motor boat with the end of a wooden oar. This murder is savage and brutal but effective, though Ripley's conscience is clear as he becomes Dicky Greenleaf, assuming Dickies identity with frightening skill.

What makes this story unique and compelling is Highsmith's writing, narrating the tale in the third person but from Ripley's perspective only, and giving us a glimpse into the mind of a sociopath and ruthless killer.

To be fair, Tom Ripley is indeed a likable character, an individual of good taste in art, food and anything of beauty. He teaches himself Italian, French and later German to ensure his schemes come off without a hitch. In the later novels, he has acquired a magnificent French mansion, filled with original art and co-habituating with a beautiful and rich young woman. He also, in the later novels becomes an expert gardener, spending hours on his lavish property. We really like this man but, be aware, because he turns and kills, without a second thought, when it suits his plans or thwarts his carefully laid out schemes. Never get in this man's way.

Ripley is a dangerous individual, a man who views the world in a much different way than the rest of us. Although a true psychopath, Highsmith has made the reader like the guy, hoping, for some reason, that he gets away with whatever crime he's committing... very strange, original and terribly seductive.

If you have not read Highsmith before, read the Ripley series, particularly The Talented Mr. Ripley, and if you are hooked, the novels can be read over again through the years because, like all true art, these novels are timeless.

He could be your next door neighbour.......2007-01-22

The Talented Mr. Ripley is the best fictional representation of a sociopath that I have ever encountered. This book does a great job of showing how the sociopathic mind works and preys on normal people. It really is a case of a wolf that looks like a sheep being loose in a crowded pasture. Patricia Highsmith was familiar to me through her wonderful, dark, disturbing and offbeat short stories such as The Snail-Watcher, The Day of Reckoning, and The Terrapin. This was the first of her many novels that I have read and I am certainly planning to read others in the future. I had seen an excellent movie version of Ripley's Game called The American Friend (Wim Wenders, director) and so was interested in the Ripley character. All of the characters in this novel are entirely believable, if not particularly sympathetic. The European locations are nicely described. A curious effect, that I imagine is a sign of a good writer, is that I found myself hoping that Ripley would somehow pull through his excruciating fixes even though I knew he should be caught and punished. By the end of the book, I also found myself identifying with him in some of his ungenerous and extravagant views of his fellow human beings. Strange.

Totally Unbeleivable.......2006-09-08

The reason I did not give this a lower rating is because the premise is good. The story in a nutshell is Tom Ripley is sent to Europe to try to convince Dickie Greenleaf to come home. He winds up wanting to be Dickie and assumes Dickie's identity. Tom noticed that there is a resemblance between Dickie and himself. It seemed strange to me that Dickie's parents did not notice the resemblance, nor did Dickie, nor his girlfriend, nor any of Dickie's other friends.

When Tom assumes Dickie's identity he lightens his hair (Dickie was blond), gains a few pounds, and dresses like Dickie. He is living in a place where Dickie is not known. This is quite plausible. However, one of Dickie's friends tracks him down and calls him on the phone. The friend is not able to tell it is not Dickie. Yet, when Dickie's girlfriend calls the number she recognizes Tom's voice immediatley. Meanwhile, Tom is writng letters as Dickie to Dickie's parents and Dickie's girlfriend. Grant they are typewritten. Mind you he has only know Dickie for a few months. No one seems to notice that something is not right. This is a stretch; but it is plausible.

Things start getting totally unbeleivable when Tom gives Dickie's passport as identification to a police officer. I know passport photos are bad; however, this is part of a murder investigation. Then when the real Dickie Greenleaf photograph get splashed across all the newspapers no one not even the police notice that the person in the photographs is not the same person they have known.

Finally, a bank suspects that Dickie's signature are forgeries. At this point Tom goes back to being Tom. He lightens his hair, tries to loose the extra pounds he put on to be Dickies, starts to dress sloppily and moves to another town. A photograph of Tom as Tom get published in the papers and again of course no one notices that this is the man that was posing as Dickie.

To top it all of Tom sent a type forged copy of Dickie's will to Dickie's parents with no witness signature. They accept it without wanting to see the original (at the very least it could be checked for fingerprints) and make arrangements for the will to be executed.

There are other things in the book that stretch the limit of plausibility. The premise was very good and the psychological profile of Tom was good. Everything else just didn't add up.

A Not-So-Innocent Abroad.......2006-08-24

In THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY, written in 1955, Patricia Highsmith has created a fictional character as memorable as John Updike's Rabbit Angstrom or Arthur Miller's Willie Loman and just as American in Tom Ripley. She has taken the theme used so often by American fiction writers from Hawthorne to Henry James of the innocent American traveling in Europe and turned it upside down since Ripley, who travels to Italy and other places in Europe, is anything but blameless as he murders to get what he wants.

This novel is so much more than a conventional crime novel. Highsmith writes beautiful, to-the-point prose and totally engages the reader is Ripley's exploits. Her writing is reminiscent of both Henry James and Poe--early in the novel Herbert Greenleaf asks Tom if he has read James' THE AMBASSADORS. He has to reply that he has not-- and she can tell as chilling a tale as any writer I can think of. Even though most of us probably have a pretty good idea of how the novel will end, since two films have been made from it-- the French film EN PLEIN SOLEIL (1960) and THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY (1999)--we share Tom's fears and concerns-- realizing we should know better-- as he tells one lie after another to cover his murderous tracks, piling one indiscretion on another but always landing on his feet.

Highsmith presents the classic love triangle with a twist. Marge, whom Ripley detests and describes her figure as "gourdlike," is in love with the well-off Dickie Greenleaf and dislikes and distrusts Ripley, believing that he is, in the language of the times, a "sexual deviant."

Even if you have seen one or both of the films about this most talented character, you'll be intrigued and entertained by the novel.

The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game (Everyman's Library)

Average customer rating:

(three and a half stars) The first is the best
existential insight into a troubled mind
Sorry but no....
Brilliant Characters, Philosphical Questions and Great Plots
Well written

The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game (Everyman's Library)
Patricia Highsmith
Manufacturer: Everyman's Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Boy Who Followed Ripley
Ripley Under Water
Strangers on a Train
Ripley's Game
The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith

ASIN: 0375407928
Release Date: 1999-10-12

Amazon.com

<B>Penzler Pick, February 2000</B>: Astonishingly unappreciated in America in her lifetime, Patricia Highsmith has suddenly become a hot writer, four years after her death. This has been aided in no small part by the theatrical release of The Talented Mr. Ripley, with its cast of attractive young people. The success of the film has induced readers to try the book--not uncommon for popular movie adaptations--and then to look for other books by her as well. This excellent trilogy of the first three (of five) adventures of the utterly amoral Ripley helps fill that need.

In spite of being a bestselling writer in Germany, France, Austria, and other European countries, and in spite of the great fame accorded her first novel, Strangers on a Train, and the film adaptation by Alfred Hitchcock, Highsmith enjoyed no success in her native America, and she became an expatriate, living virtually all of her adult life in Europe.

The first of the Ripley novels is The Talented Mr. Ripley, in which the ne'er-do-well Tom Ripley commits murder and assumes the identity of his wealthy friend. In Ripley Underground, he is in danger of being discovered to have defrauded a large company out of a fortune, which could cost him his wealthy wife. In Ripley's Game, a casual snub causes Tom to concoct a scheme involving several murders, the Mafia, and a great deal of money.

These superbly crafted tales about the unfailingly charming but entirely reprehensible criminal are irresistible, much like watching Mike Tyson in a boxing ring (or out of it, for that matter). You know it's wrong to be titillated by it, and you feel guilty about enjoying the spectacle, but it's impossible to avert the eyes. --Otto Penzler

Book Description

Three classic crime novels by a master of the macabre appear here together in hardcover for the first time.

Suave, agreeable, and completely amoral, Patricia Highsmith's hero, the inimitable Tom Ripley, stops at nothing--not even murder-- to accomplish his goals. In achieving for himself the opulent life that he was denied as a child, Ripley shows himself to be a master of illusion and manipulation and a disturbingly sympathetic combination of genius and psychopath. As Highsmith navigates the mesmerizing tangle of Ripley's deadly and sinister games, she turns the mystery genre inside out and takes us into the mind of a man utterly indifferent to evil.

The Talented Mr. Ripley
In a chilling literary hall of mirrors, Patricia Highsmith introduces Tom Ripley. Like a hero in a latter-day Henry James novel, is sent to Italy with a commission to coax a prodigal young American back to his wealthy father. But Ripley finds himself very fond of Dickie Greenleaf. He wants to be like him--exactly like him. Suave, agreeable, and utterly amoral, Ripley stops at nothing--certainly not only one murder--to accomplish his goal. Turning the mystery form inside out, Highsmith shows the terrifying abilities afforded to a man unhindered by the concept of evil.

Ripley Under Ground
In this harrowing illumination of the psychotic mind, the enviable Tom Ripley has a lovely house in the French countryside, a beautiful and very rich wife, and an art collection worthy of a connoisseur. But such a gracious life has not come easily. One inopportune inquiry, one inconvenient friend, and Ripley's world will come tumbling down--unless he takes decisive steps. In a mesmerizing novel that coolly subverts all traditional notions of literary justice, Ripley enthralls us even as we watch him perform acts of pure and unspeakable evil.

Ripley's Game
Connoisseur of art, harpsichord aficionado, gardener extraordinaire, and genius of improvisational murder, the inimitable Tom Ripley finds his complacency shaken when he is scorned at a posh gala. While an ordinary psychopath might repay the insult with some mild act of retribution, what Ripley has in mind is far more subtle, and infinitely more sinister. A social slight doesn't warrant murder of course-- just a chain of events that may lead to it.

Customer Reviews:

(three and a half stars) The first is the best.......2007-05-25

After seeing "The Talented Mr. Ripley" with Matt Damon, I was interested in learning more about this intriguing character, so I bought this single volume containing Patricia Highsmith's first three Ripley novels (which I understand are much better than the Ripley sequels number four and five). While I can't say, as other reviewers do, that I loved it, it was a worthwhile read, with the first novel being the best. After that, Ripley, while remaining true to his amoral self, becomes too self-confident and domestic for my taste. I probably would have stopped after the second novel if I hadn't bought the trilogy.

Anyway, I've recently reviewed all three novels, which I figured I'd just "cut and paste" here:

The Talented Mr. Ripley -- 4 stars:

Thomas Ripley is approached by Mr. Greenleaf, a successful business man, who asks Tom to travel to a small coastal village in Italy, for the purpose of convincing his son Dickie to return and join the family business. When Tom, financed by Mr. Greenleaf, travels to Italy and meets Dickie (whom he soon befriends and moves in with), he sees what he has always dreamed of being: someone who lives a life of leisure, never works, with no money worries. Tom -- who's probably bisexual -- more than falls in love with Dickie, he actually wants to absorb his friend's persona and become him. He realizes that because of a stronger than passing resemblance, plus prodigious impersonation talents (which include forgery), he can become more and more like Dickie; but he eventually comes to the conclusion, in his typical amoral fashion, that he has to get rid of Dickie in order to truly live the life he wants. The third main character in the book, Marge, is in love with Dickie and jealous of Tom, but never truly understands Tom's complete obsession.

If one has seen the movie, one cannot help but picture Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow (whose "Marge" has a stronger personality than the one in the book)in these roles. I didn't mind that, and could appreciate Patricia Highsmith's taut writing skills and ability to make the reader feel repulsed and sympathetic of Tom simultaneously. Sometimes I found myself routing for Tom, but most of the time I wanted him to get caught. My biggest problem with the book is that I couldn't accept how incompetent the Italian police were. One of the basic principles of a murder investigation is to follow the money trail -- which would lead even the most bumbling investigator to Tom. I doubt that even in the 1950's one could so easily impersonate someone else and get away with it. (The same can be said for "Ripley Under Ground," the next book in the Ripley series, but to an even greater degree).

Although certainly with its flaws, "The Talented Mr. Ripley," delivers as a riveting read about a disturbed but clever man who will stop at nothing to obtain his goals.
-------------------------------------

Ripley Under Ground -- 3 stars

Several years after he murdered Dickie Greenleaf and went through the events described in "The Talented Mr. Ripley," we now find a more domesticated Tom Ripley living as a man of leisure in a beautiful old country house with a lovely garden in France, with his young, blond French wife Heloise. Tom, living on the money that Dickie "left" to him (in a fake will drawn up by Tom himself after he murdered Dickie), plus his wife's family's generous allowance, supplements his income (and adds some excitment to a rather staid life) by having a stake in a bogus art dealership that sells paintings from the mysterious Derwatt. Unbeknownst to the general public, Derwatt actually committed suicide years before, and the new Derwatt paintings are being painted by Bernard Tufts, a secret business partner of Tom, who's an expert counterfeiter of Derwatt's art. But what's one to do when this fraudalent scheme is discovered by an avid Derwatt fan?

Though Ripley is now older, wiser and more circumspect than he was in the prior novel, he hasn't changed at all in one respect: he will not let anything or anyone stand in the way of his blissful existence, even if he has to lie, cheat and murder. Still a master of imitation, Ripley also has to assume the role of different persona, including that of Derwatt himself, in order to get away with his various crimes.

The problem I had with "Ripley Under Ground," was the same thing I had with "The Talented Mr. Ripley," but even more so. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at how many times Ripley was able to convince the police (here both French and British, as opposed to Italian in the prior Ripley novel) of his complete innocence and non-involvement with the shakiest of alibis and under the deepest suspicion. Ripley explains that he's just unlucky in that people who were last seem with him happen to disappear, and presumably well trained detectives astonishingly accept this after the most cursory of investigation.

What was most frustrating to me is that all the police had to do to figure out the Derwatt ruse, and Ripley's involvement in it, was to follow the money trail. His colleagues at the Derwatt gallery explained that they had no idea where Derwatt lived or how they could locate him. Wouldn't following the money trail be the first thing one would do if someone who's alleging counterfeit paintings was murdered? This avenue of investigation would have led to the discovery of Ripley's involvement in the enterprise, and his entire story would have collapsed like a house of cards.

In short, if you liked "The Talented Mr. Ripley," it's probably worth your while to read "Ripley Under Ground." But the problems of the first Ripley novel are magnified here.
---------------------------------------

Ripley's Game -- 3 stars

Since I purchased a single volume which included the trilogy "The Talented Mr. Ripley," "Ripley Under Ground," and "Ripley's Game," I felt compelled to read the last installment, even though I probably would have stopped with the second one if purchased one at a time. Alas, "Ripley's Game" didn't thrill me. Sure, we still have the compelling main character who, like a toned down (non-cannabilistic) Hannibal Lechter, wonders whether his wine is properly chilled or how to play a Bach sonata on his newly purchased harpischord right before he bludgeons an enemy's head with a heavy stick. Here, his murderous choices aren't nearly so repugnant as in the two earlier Ripley novels, since those he kills are members of the Italian Mafia.

In fact, the central character of "Ripley's Game" is not Thomas Ripley at all, but Jonathan Trevanny, dying of a fatal blood disease, who sets aside his morals and agrees to murder members of the Mafia for money (paid by Reeves, a "colleague" of Ripley whom we've met before), so that a war might be started amongst the Mafia families. Honestly, as a fan of "The Sopranos," it seemed at times that Highsmith's portrayal of the mob was nothing short of naive and pedestrian. The fight/murder scenes have an odd flatness to them, and are certainly not one of Highsmith's stronger points.

One thing which kind of bothered me was that Ripley's comments to a character named Gauthier - that Trevanny had taken a turn for the worst -supposedly sets certain key events in motion. In fact (and I re-read this part to make sure), it was Gauthier who told Ripley about Trevanny's illness in the first place.

In any event, the character of Thomas Ripley is certainly an intriguing one, and though I'm probably not going to read the two subsequent Ripley novels, someday I'll rent the two movies based on "Ripley's Game."

existential insight into a troubled mind.......2006-07-31

Loved the three books contained in this volume. Engrossing stories about a man with a troubled mind who lives a very pleasant and noremal life, ... except for a few excursions into murder. The hero is the villan, an unusual twist to the thriller mystery novel.

Sorry but no...........2006-01-10

I didn't like this trilogy. I have to confess i bought it after watching the movie based on the first book.In my opinion this is one of the very few cases when the movie is better than the book. the story is just not as intense as it is in the movie, Tom's fascination with Dickie is more implicit in the book. Maybe because of the time it was written? In the book Tom dislikes "queers", in the movie he seems to be one of them.
About the second and third books... Tom helping this pseu-do english painter who feels guilty about forging the works of a long time dead artist... why does he get involved in the first place? He has a beautiful house in France, he is married to a rich blonde Frenchwoman, why risk it all again? I guess he just has a passion for complicated lives...And later he gets involved in the German mafia, corrupting a cancer patient. The last book is way over the top, specially all the shooting in the last chapters... I guess you have to be a crime fiction fanatic to appreciate Patricia Highsmith's unrealistic plots...

Brilliant Characters, Philosphical Questions and Great Plots.......2004-10-26

The character development of Tom Ripley is what makes The Talented Mr. Ripley one of the great crime novels of the 20th century. Ms. Highsmith is an acute observer and is able to translate her sensitivity into a multidimensional portrait of a successful criminal in a way that is virtually unmatched. One of the most astonishing qualities of this book is that you will find yourself pulling for Ripley, even though he is as amoral a character as you will read about.

Ripley is an immensely capable man who floats like a newly cut wood chip on the surging tides of life, always buoyant regardless of the circumstances. He is extremely impulsive. He also has so little invested in who he is that he can even be happier pretending to be someone else. He is also unattached to the world's judgments. Solitude suits him well.

The story opens as the father of a casual acquaintance tracks Ripley down. The father wants to persuade his son to return from Italy to take up a career in the family business. Through this contact, Ripley finds himself sent off to Europe as a paid emissary. Once there, Ripley makes no headway but does develop a friendship with his casual acquaintance before strains start to develop. What follows is one of the most interesting and intricate plot lines that it will ever be your pleasure to read.

The book's largest theme is about identity. Who are we really? Can we be someone different from whom we seem to be? How do we misjudge one another? I don't remember any other crime novel that explores such subtle questions so well.

I recently reread this novel for the third time. I found depths in the themes and story telling that I had missed before. Even if you have read it before, I suggest you do so again. If you haven't read any of the Ripley novels, you have a great treat ahead of you.

The next book in the series is Ripley under Ground which suffers in comparison with The Talented Mr. Ripley. By comparison, Ripley Under Ground could be renamed Ripley in Slow Motion with a Yawn. Character development is much less in this book and the plot is much less intricate and exciting.

As the book opens, we find that the sexually neuter Ripley from The Talented Mr. Ripley has turned into a married Ripley who has a wealthy wife on vacation in Greece. A scam that Ripley started before he married and after The Talented Mr. Ripley has come back to haunt him. Ripley had helped set up a ring to forge portraits by a dead artist and to pretend the artist is still alive. A collector is challenging the authenticity of a painting he bought which is a forgery. Ripley decides to come to London to impersonate the artist. But that doesn't work so Ripley has to find some new method to solve the problem.

One of the weakest elements in this book is the heavy use of impersonations. It's just too much to be credible. That was the weakest part of The Talented Mr. Ripley, but here Ms. Highsmith goes off the deep end in that regard.

I did like the little character development that occurred. Ripley starts to develop some feelings for other people, even if they are not deep ones. He's not quite the amoral monster he was before, but he certainly looks out for number one first. He also starts to trust others for the first time.

The premise for Ripley's Game, the third book in the series, is the most interesting of the three: How will a dying man look at morality when he knows his days are numbered? Ripley's Game has a second advantage over The Talented Mr. Ripley and Ripley Under Ground, there are no plot devices where Ripley fools the same person over and over again with alternate disguises. Another advantage over Ripley Under Ground is that Ms. Highsmith has a new character who can be totally developed in his many complex facets.

As the book opens, Tom Ripley's criminal friend Reeves has come up with an implausible idea -- encourage the Italian mafia to run itself out of Hamburg by starting a war between rival families. To do this, Reeves needs an untraceable, innocent-looking killer who will quickly disappear. Reeves spots the possible targets, but cannot think of anyone to do the killings. Although Ripley has nothing at stake, the problem intrigues Tom. He remembers a local owner of a framing shop, Jonathan Trevanny, who has an advanced case of incurable leukemia. How might making the man afraid of dying sooner affect his willingness to kill? The story proceeds from there with many twists and turns that are more realistic than in The Talented Mr. Ripley or Ripley Under Ground. Before the book is over, you learn a lot about how people create their own situational morality. You will find yourself surprised by the reactions of Ripley, Trevanny and Trevanny's wife. It makes for very interesting reading. I especially enjoyed seeing Ms. Highsmith go back to do more with developing new dimensions of Ripley's character.

The book's main problem with the book is that it usually moves at the wrong pace. The leisurely, untroubled sections are developed at about the same pace as the dangerous action sections are. As a result, the book feels like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is being played at the exact same average tempo throughout. The contrasts don't work as well with such an approach. In addition, the leisurely parts are too fast and the action parts are too slow.

After you finish this book, take time to honestly think about what you would do if you had been Trevanny. It makes for a series of fascinating speculations to consider.

Well written.......2004-06-15

The novel is well written and I enjoyed reading it. I think the story has something very extravagant and is, psychologically seen, such a great work of art. The story is interesting because of the variability of the different people. The different characters are well constructed but in a way not as realistic as in the book.
Tom Ripley is a man with too high ambitions but he can't realise his dreams so easily in this world.
I think the aspect of seeing through the eyes of the protagonist is nothing special but through the eyes of a criminal. It's very interesting and a great challenge not to lose sight of the right side of life and the importance of the relations between important and true friends. In a way the story aims at the global world constellation because of the relations among the various points of power in the world, like the "good" and the "bad" people or the way how you succeed in your life.
But altogether it's a thrilling story which I can recommend to read.

Average customer rating:

Powerful, rich with suspense.
early highsmith
Subtly menacing, every sentence slowly picking at your sanity...
Stinging suspense--one of Highsmith's best
Murder And Mayhem

Strangers on a Train
Patricia Highsmith
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393321983

Book Description

A major new reissue of the work of a classic noir novelist. With the acclaim for The Talented Mr. Ripley, more film projects in production, and two biographies forthcoming, expatriate legend Patricia Highsmith would be shocked to see that she has finally arrived in her homeland. Throughout her career, Highsmith brought a keen literary eye and a genius for plumbing the psychopathic mind to more than thirty works of fiction, unparalleled in their placid deviousness and sardonic humor. With deadpan accuracy, she delighted in creating true sociopaths in the guise of the everyday man or woman. Now, one of her finest works is again in print: Strangers on a Train, Highsmith's first novel and the source for Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1953 film. With this novel, Highsmith revels in eliciting the unsettling psychological forces that lurk beneath the surface of everyday contemporary life.

Customer Reviews:

Powerful, rich with suspense........2007-05-21

Strangers on a Train is the debut novel of the highly acclaimed Patricia Highsmith. And what a gut wrenching, suspense saturated debut novel it is.

Guy Haines is an up and coming architect who meets the malevolent and seriously disturbed Charles Bruno on a train. Guy unwisely reveals a little too much about his personal life to Bruno and subsequently finds himself a party to murder most foul. The psychologic torment Guy undergoes because of his involvement in this nefarious crime just leaps from the pages of this book and slaps the reader right in the face.

The story takes place circa. 1950, yet I couldn't help but think of certain aspects of the book as being more characteristic of the 1920s and its anything goes, Jazz Age mentality. Especially when it comes to the the high flying Charles Bruno and his uninhibited lifestyle.

Strangers on a Train is an intricately crafted psychological thriller that is suspense filled and emotionally jarring. An oustanding novel worthy of a 5 star rating. Highly recommended.

early highsmith.......2007-05-14

i'd hesitated when it came to reading this book. like everyonelse i'd seen the hitchcock movie and i wasn't sure i wanted to deal with the original.the book is good but my reticence was justified.this is early middling highsmith.it's strangely"girlish".given highsmiths misogyny,that is surprising.it's also too cozily bourgeois.no i'm not a bourgeois basher!but there are points in this book where you can't wait for highsmith to whip out here nasty acid tongue and it just does'nt happen.i almost cringed while reading the description of anne's father making mint juleps.although i must admit i made a mint julep that night. it's with CRY OF THE OWL and THE TALENTED MR.RIPLEY that highsmith becomes highmith.you still see it as late as PEOPLE WHO KNOCK ON THE DOOR,with its marvelous biliousness and the abrasive cantankouresness of FOUND ON THE STREET.STRANGERS probably hurt highsmiths career precisely by being such a sucess so early on. it is a thriller -crime novel and probably lead to the typing of highsmith as a genre novelist.in reality it's one of the few books she wrote that neatly fits the genre. i suspect that she was hyped as a "master of suspense".one can only imagine the poor reader who was looking for a masterpiece of suspense reading EDITHS DIARY.even RIPLEY and CRY OF-her masterpieces-aren'nt really thrillers.they are simply very good novels written by a writer who was one of americas best.crime,thrills,even some mystery were not to be disdained but they were mediums of expression not the essence of the novels.SRANGERS however is a cime suspense novel and a good one.however highsmith evolved beyond this quickly.most readers did'nt.

Subtly menacing, every sentence slowly picking at your sanity..........2007-04-14

Patricia Highsmith was ahead of her time, constructing the perfect crime novel long before it would truly be appreciated. Sadly she was never as famously accepted as she could have been while still living, but thanks to reprints and reissues her novels are being given a new breath of life. Now I say all of this and I have only had the pleasure of reading one of her novels, but that novel was so articulately perfect that I have nothing but the utmost respect for the late author. `Strangers on a Train' is so brilliantly crafted that I'm racking my brain to find a flaw, a drawback of some sort and the only thing I can muster is that here and there there are some grammatical errors, but other than that...I'm coming up empty handed.

Any fan of the Hitchcock film will immediately understand why the famed late director scooped up the film rights to this novel. The premise alone deserves the reader's utmost respect. Two strangers get wrapped up in the perfect crime that escalates into the most horrific journey into the human psyche.

Up and coming architect Guy Haines is traveling by train to meet his estranged wife Miriam to pursue a divorce. Miriam has given Guy nothing but heartache, nothing but trouble, and his nerves are getting the better of him. What if she refuses the divorce? He has a lot riding on this. He has a big job in the works that could finally make for him the name he's been waiting to make. He also has a wonderful supportive woman, Anne, waiting to give her his hand in marriage. He needs this divorce more now than ever.

Charles Bruno so happens to be traveling on the same train. Bruno is traveling to escape his father, a man he abhors with every fiber in his body. His father has denied him all that he feels he is entitled to, and he's come to loathe him in such a way that his death seems all Bruno can think of. If only his father were out of the picture, if only somehow, someway he could be rid of this horror of a man.

And with that the wheels begin to turn, as Guy meets Bruno and Bruno delves deeply into this man, winning over his trust and then devising a plan which involves a double homicide, the two of them trading off murders. It seems so perfect, Bruno, who has no relation to either Guy or Miriam, kills Miriam to free Guy of his ex and in return Guy murders Bruno's father. Guy immediately dismisses the idea as a sick joke and from that point on does all he can to avoid Bruno. Bruno on the other hand doesn't so easily forget Guy, and he decides to go ahead with the plan whether Guy wants to participate or not, but it's after he's snuffed the life out of Miriam that the trouble really begins.

In order for a plan like this to work the two parties would need to remain separate, distant and out of touch, but Bruno slowly becomes obsessed with Guy, falling in love with him in a way and begins to haunt, stalk and torture (mentally) Guy to the point to sheer insanity. The novel continues to weave Bruno's twisted web and we, the reader, are able to sit back and experience madness at its most effective. Patricia was able to paint this picture so clear that we are left with no feeling other than contentment and pure satisfaction. Yes, this novel plays out differently than the famed film, but that's no reason to disregard the novel altogether. It's worth every word penned!

Stinging suspense--one of Highsmith's best.......2007-01-27

What's interesting is the powerful difference between this novel and Hitchcock's film version. In the novel, Guy Haines is an architect rather than a tennis pro (the film), but this is not the main difference. Without giving anything away, there is a major difference plotwise, and if you read the novel AFTER having seen the film (as I did), your jaw drops open at how big a difference this really is.

While Hitchcock's film is a great cinematic classic, Highsmith's novel is, I think, an even better piece of work overall. She is an absolute master of psychological nuance and digs so deep into the Guy Haines character that the reader is absolutely riveted to the page. So too does she dig into the character of the antagonist, Charles Anthony Bruno, and this as well keeps you turning page after page.

As most people probably know by now, the story is of criss-crossing murders whose idea first emerges when the two main characters meet by chance on a train and eventually Bruno proposes to Haines--after sneakily drawing out the particulars of the latter's family situation--that each kill the one person most in the way of the other person's happiness.

Highsmith's prose is way ahead of its time; the novel was published in 1951 and reads like it could have been published at least 25 years later, if not more. This was, in fact, her first published work.

I dare you to start reading this and put it down for any length of time. You can't.

Murder And Mayhem.......2006-08-26

A fantastic and imaginative plot. Two men, one a brilliant architect and the other a neurotic, alcoholic, misogynist, psychopath meet on the train, develop a strange friendship, and one can easily guess troubles ahead. Bruno, the alcoholic rich dilettante, makes an offer to Guy over dinner with plenty of Scotch. He volunteers to kill Guy's estranged wife, if Guy would return the favor by murdering Bruno's hated father. Guy is shocked and revolted by the casualness and matter of fact tone of the proposal. Little did he guess that Bruno would fulfill his end of the bargain and blackmail Guy to go though with his.

It is a story reminiscent of Crime & Punishment, Les Miserable, which deal mainly with human frailties, conscience, morality, society at large, guilt and redemption. Guy duels with himself and the good finally prevails and he confesses.

It is a classic page turner with panache.

Average customer rating:

Mostly for Highsmith fans
No Suspense Here
Interesting and entertaining
Mildly amusing, but useless.
Behind the Scenes at the Abbatoir

Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction
Patricia Highsmith
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Fiction | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 031228666X

Amazon.com

Suspense, like other genre fiction, is often assumed to be inferior in quality to more "serious" fiction. A suspense story can be every bit as well-wrought as any other, argues Patricia Highsmith in Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction. To show how, Highsmith focuses as much on her failures as on her successes. Amid discussions about growing ideas, story development, plotting, first and second drafts, and revisions are anecdotes from Highsmith's own career. Highsmith (Strangers on a Train) admits to editing with crayon (doing so "gives one the proper cavalier attitude"), napping on the job (it helps solve problems), and having written one "really dull" book. Though this book is slim, there are some lovely thoughts on such issues as creating a murderer-hero with "pleasant qualities," "stretch[ing] the reader's credulity," and using "as much care in depicting the face and appearance of ... main characters" as a painter would with a portrait. --Jane Steinberg

Book Description

Patricia Highsmith, author of Strangers On a Train, The Talented Mr.Ripley, Found In The Street, and many other books, is known as one of the finest suspense novelists. In this book, she analyzes the key elements of suspense fiction, drawing upon her own experience in four decades as a working writer. She talks about, among other topics; how to develop a complete story from an idea; what makes a plot gripping; the use (and abuse) of coincidence; characterization and the "likeable criminal"; going from first draft to final draft; and writing the suspense short story. Throughout the book, Highsmith illustrates her points with plentiful examples from her own work, and by discussing her own inspirations, false starts, dead ends, successes, and failures, she presents a lively and highly readable picture of the novelist at work. Anyone who wishes to write crime and suspense fiction, or who enjoys reading it, will find this book an insightful guide to the craft and art of a modern master. AUTHORBIO: The late Patricia Highsmith was reknowned as a great writer of suspense, winning the French Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere(1957) and the British Crime Writers Association's Silver Dagger in 1964. She is the author of twenty seven works of fiction, as well as numerous reviews and essays.

Customer Reviews:

Mostly for Highsmith fans.......2005-12-16

I found this book enjoyable to read, but not very useful as a practical guide. Written almost like an interview, Highsmith details the writing of her various books and short stories. If you're a fan of hers (as I am), these stories are entertaining since they show the genesis of her ideas and insights into her writing.

However, it is difficult to see how many of her suggestions could be applied outside of the situation where she used them. It was almost as if she provided great anecdotes, but couldn't render general principles that would be useful in varied writing circumstances. If you're a Highsmith fan, you'll really enjoy this small book. If you're looking for general writing advice, another book might serve you better.

No Suspense Here .......2005-03-27

Patricia Highsmith is a fine writer of suspense fiction, one of the better ones of the past generation. But, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction has none whatsoever: no intrique, no gueswork at all as to where she is going. Rather, she is only frank, brutally honest, and above all, to her credit, refrains from Lordly preachments as to the craft of writing in this genre. There are no exercises, no checklists, no workbook atmosphere, not the remotest hint of finger waving, teacherly reprimands surrounding this book. ##### I got curiouser and curiouser as I read, wondering when the directional thrust would evolve. It never did. If you're expecting her to tell you to put down the newspaper and turn off the tv, forget it. Instead, she tells you, in effect, if you want to make the world a better place, plant flowers in your front yard. ##### The closest she gets to a heartily advocated position in the entire book is in stressing that you must, firstly, write to please yourself. If you've read all the great works in your genre, and are satisfied with your own when you hold it up to the light of comparison, you're probably knocking out good stuff. It all starts there: your own self-satisfaction. Precious wisdom, indeed. ##### When I open a book on the writing craft I ecxpect a big variety of things. I ask myself, is it going to be another gung-ho, Gen. George S. Patton entreaty, a kick-ass approach to blowing away all obstacles? Is it going to be a back-to-school lesson? Maybe a biting commentary on the plight of the book publishing business. Are all the barriers going to be highlighted, and followed with urgings which subconsciously cause a sense of desperastion, like borrowing last-resort money to save the family farm?. You just never know what the "slant" will be. It could be any one of a number. ##### Highsmith opts for a sort of combination semi-autobiography / musings-on-writing treatise. Inspirational? No. Educational? Not really. A good look at the bell-shaped curve of life from a talented writer's viewpoint? Yes. It's like getting an Insider's look, from the outside. Whatever value you might get from this perspective is for only you to determine.

Interesting and entertaining.......2004-05-08

I'm glad I bought this book. As an author of suspense myself, I found it very worthwhile. It won't teach you how to write--but I've found no book can really do that. In the same vein as Stephen Kings book On Writing, it is more an account about how this highly successful author developed her craft over the years, her successes and failures. If you want a how to guide you would be better off with another title. It also enhances the enjoyment of this book if the reader is familiar with Highsmith's books. I found it interesting to know where she got her ideas and how she developed a small incident into a novel.

Mildly amusing, but useless........2004-02-25

Very little useful information contained in this book. You can learn more about the craft from reading her fiction!

Get Stephen King's On Writing instead. Much more practical advice.

Behind the Scenes at the Abbatoir.......2003-08-07

A modestly written, terse, readable and nuts and bolts book about how plots come to be put together, how a writer makes a living (or doesn't) and how to tell the story. What I found most charming about this "How-To" book was that it wasn't chirpy, wasn't preachy, didn't have a whiff of unreality arising from its advice, and was eminently practical. The only crime writing manual so far that I have picked up, browsed in, bought, took home and actually finished reading from cover to cover (sometimes doing the reading on a bus, that's how gripping it is). Recommended.

The Tremor of Forgery (Highsmith, Patricia)

Average customer rating:

the tremors of self
The Tremor of Indecision
Highsmith at her best
Exotic beneath the surface mystery
The Tremor of Forgery

The Tremor of Forgery (Highsmith, Patricia)
Patricia Highsmith
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0871132583

Customer Reviews:

the tremors of self.......2007-03-09

Separated from all that he is, a young writer is tempted to become much that he is not. He is tested, in several ways, with only his own antennae, sensitive to subtle and not-so-subtle moral and ethical malaise to protect him.

The state of mind of the main character has a disquieting, queasy-making effect on the reader. We dread his imminent personal disintegration, right up to the last few pages... when there is an unforced surprise which is a true and strong insight into - there is no other way to say it - how to live one's life.

An extraordinary book.

The Tremor of Indecision.......2006-03-02

Howard Ingham is an American writer in Tunisia, sent there to write a movie script. Luckily he has received a large advance and is staying in a hotel waiting for the arrival of the actors and director/cameraman. He's also waiting for a letter from his girlfriend Ina. Unfortunately, before he arrives, the director commits suicide after a short affair with Ina, but Howard stays on in Tunisia, unable to get going with his life. He makes various and assorted friends and Ina travels from New York to visit him. He decides he's crazy in love with her, then decides he isn't. He defends himself against a burglar, then is made to feel guilty about it. Howard can't really decide how he feels. I know how I felt: bored. Every meal, every can of beer is described.

There is one good thing: the dog comes back!

Highsmith at her best.......2003-06-30

Sometime after Patricia Highsmith's death in 1995, my local bookstore moved her books from the "Mystery & Thriller" section to the more general "Fiction" section, a final irony for a writer who had been largely ignored in the U.S. (except perhaps by mystery readers). Why this was so is not clear at all. Did Hitchcock's filming of her 1950 "Strangers on a Train" fatally pigeonhole her as a mystery writer? Or did the expatriate nature of her life, living abroad in England, France and finally Switzerland for so many years, allow us to lose sight of her as a great American writer? For make no mistake about it, Highsmith was a great American writer, as evidenced by perhaps her most serious and ironic work, "The Tremor of Forgery" (1969).

"Tremor" begins with novelist Howard Ingham's arrival in Tunisia, where he expects to spend a few weeks writing a screenplay with the film's director, who will be joining him shortly. The director never does arrive, leaving Ingham to begin working on a new novel while immersing himself in Tunisia, where everything in his life gets turned upside down. His new novel is "about a man with a double life, a man unaware of the amorality of the way he lived." Is this a description that fits Ingham as well? "In his book, he had no intention of justifying his hero." Could this be true of Highsmith too?

Within a few pages, Highsmith introduces the kind of exotica found in the great expatriate novels: Cafe de Paris, Herald-Tribune, Pernod, jasmine. And by the end of the second chapter she has also introduced the novel's themes: identity, loneliness, male bonding, and cultural relativism. The latter figures prominently as Ingham begins to change, unable to make the decision to return home after realizing the film will never be made. Already in chapter 4 he is "irked" when he hears some "Germans" speaking "very American American." And soon the African sun makes difficult "the sheer effort of imagining New York's unwritten conventions."

The backdrop for this novel is the June 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. While not a factor in the plot, this war, which coincides with the first couple weeks of Ingham's stay in Tunisia, provides a historical context for the reader. This is definitely not the world of Lawrence of Arabia. Nor is it really the world of Paul Bowles' "The Sheltering Sky" (1949). Rather, the world of "Tremor" is a precursor to our own troubled times. Which is not to say the novel could have been written yesterday. Some aspects of the novel make it almost a period piece. For even though the '60s can seem like only yesterday, those years were more like the previous century than like subsequent decades in many ways: international communication could be slow and unreliable, there were no cell phones, faxes, Internet, e-mail or credit cards. And in "Tremor" the characters still wear cufflinks.

Highsmith is not a humorous or witty writer, nor is she much of a stylist. However, there are many things to like about her writing. Two of the characters that Ingham meets in Tunisia are especially well drawn. Anders Jensen, a homosexual Danish artist, provides a European point of view on the "funny" Americans, with their annoying consciences. Francis Adams, a retired American, represents contradictory America during the Vietnam War (which is also raging, just out of sight) and stands for everything that Ingham's nickname for Adams conjures up: OWL (Our Way of Life).

The portrait of Ingham is also interesting. A successful young novelist who continues to write well even during periods of personal turmoil, Ingham wrestles with a number of demons. His meditations on identity, particularly cultural identity, have weight and significance for many of his decisions (or non-decisions). Is cultural identity tied specifically to place, so that Antaeus-like we lose our cultural moorings once lifted clear of our cultural origins? Or are there values and elements of character that are indelibly burned into us, unchanging regardless of setting? At one point, it appears that Ingham's "character or principles had collapsed." But this is followed almost immediately by an incident that contradicts this statement, where Ingham's character reasserts itself, one more bit of irony.

Highsmith, in her mid-forties, was probably at her peak when she wrote this novel. Nearly every sentence is taut and firm. Her writing is like that of a "thriller" the way M. Night Shyamalan's movies are like those of traditional "horror" films in that much of one's enjoyment and expectations are based on knowledge of the genre, the more so the better.

Would "Tremor" make a good movie? Highsmith has been filmed before, by international directors from Britain (Hitchcock, Minghella), France (Clement) and Germany (Wenders). Would the movie of this novel be too slow, too thoughtful, kind of an anti-thriller where what you expect to happen doesn't quite, ending with a mystery that almost isn't? Or could it be a nice quiet "psychological" movie, a period piece, in an exotic setting, containing foreshadowings of today's resurgent, militant Islam? It wouldn't have to be a Hollywood production. It might work as a PBS-type TV movie, assuming PBS one day expands its sense of "Masterpiece" to mean more than just "anglophile." Too obscure even for PBS? Well, PBS broadcast series made from Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited" and Olivia Manning's "Balkan Trilogy" and "Levant Trilogy" and none of these is exactly a trendy or action-packed work.

Highsmith might well have been thinking of her own novel when she describes Ingham's attitude toward his novel as "a difficult book for him to think of in film terms." But it's still fun to wonder about that possibility. And even more fun to read and re-read her novel whenever we need a bit of something exotic in our reading lives.

Exotic beneath the surface mystery.......2003-01-02

Tunisia, its blazing desert and ocean side hotels, is a land of many scents and sensations. The writer, Howard Ingraham, witnesses an incident from which he then is forced to confront himself stripped of all, albeit illusionary, protective devices. Within this jasmine scented, bloody and sordid terrain, Ingraham is exposed as a haunted and uncertain man, a man who is incomplete morally and whose attempts at intimacy and love have been, in retrospect, as deformed as the cat's broken tails, a fixation, it so happens, of the Tunisian populace.

Highsmith has written some of her finest ambiguous characters into this novel. The blaze of the desert sun and the atavistic Tunisian forces suspend that pretense of American self-assurance that so often drapes those travellers.
This is a gorgeous setting, a camel ride and an evening under the desert sky suggests there are some parts of Ingraham's sexuality that have not been fully realized. Highsmith portrays the tensions of life as they are- subtle, mysterious and always in a state of flux. The alienated Westerner in the midst of third world contempt and superficial graciousness. Israel has just won the Six Day's War, and there is news that an American's car was overturned in a neighboring city. Are they plotting, these Arabs who seem to talk loud all the time, and whose language is alien. Ingraham by turn, moves within the Arab neighborhood, below his artist friend, his confidant and his moral interpreter.

Looking for a clean tying up of the mysteries? As in life, that is far more an interpretation and an acknowledgement of the nature of the human heart- and its reluctance to show itself.

The Tremor of Forgery.......2002-04-30

In what some consider to be Patricia Highsmith?s finest novel, The Tremor of Forgery explores a young writer?s descent into moral ambiguity under the hot sun of 1960s Tunisia. Stranded by a suicide, heat-induced torpor, and a growing severance from all Western ties, Howard Ingham finds himself the only witness, and perhaps even participant, in the disappearance of a local pick pocket.
The way that suicide and murder and espionage, such major events, play such a minor role in the action of the novel leaves an odd sense of dissonance in the mind in the reader (one listening to Parker and Gillespe?s ?A Night in Tunisia? may, in fact, get the same feeling). Highsmith juxtaposes her hero?s emotional ambivalence with his supplanting into Araby. Also at hand in the novel is an ongoing reference to Fyodor Dostoevsky?s Crime and Punishment that serves not so much as a retake as a running commentary. Though her references are tactful, fans of the Russian author will undoubtedly prefer his landmark work to a twentieth-century rebuff that emphasizes the sham values of the times. Interesting description and the anchoring to a larger work of literature cause this reader to give an otherwise dry work a modest score of four thumbs up (out of ten).

The Two Faces of January (Highsmith, Patricia)

Average customer rating:

An absorbing suspense novel
Great stuff
The two parts
one of the best by Highsmith
atmospheric and entertaining, but Highsmith has done better

The Two Faces of January (Highsmith, Patricia)
Patricia Highsmith
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Those Who Walk Away (Highsmith, Patricia)
A Game for the Living (Highsmith, Patricia)
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The Tremor of Forgery (Highsmith, Patricia)
A Suspension of Mercy

ASIN: 0871132095

Customer Reviews:

An absorbing suspense novel.......2004-07-20

Chester Mc Farland, a clever swindler and defrauder, is travelling in Greece with his wife Colette. They are about to arrive in Athens and settle into The King's Palace.
Another American also present in Athens at the same time is Rydal Keener. He is spending several months in Europe on what money he inherited from his grandmother.
It is when Rydal sees Chester at the Benaki Museum for the first time that his resemblance to Rydal's father's twin brother strikes him. Rydal then decides to keep an eye on Chester. A few days later, Chester gets the unpleasant visit of a Greek police officer who informs him that he is working in co-operation with the American authorities. The latter are apparently more and more interested in Chester's shady past. Realising that he may well be arrested and extradited, Chester hits the policeman who then stumbles and falls, banging his head against the bathtub. A fatal blow. Chester immediately understands that he must hide the body in a small store-room down the corridor. It is at the precise moment when Chester is dragging the corps in the corridor that Rydal appears on the landing and witnesses Chester's act. Will Rydal help or blackmail Chester?
As good as "Strangers on a train" or the Ripley series by the same author.

Great stuff.......2004-06-17

Patricia Highsmith has an interesting way to tell a crime story. Every time you get tired of reading you'd like to go on because of the tension in the text. I truly can say that this book is one of my favourites. At first you have to get to know a lot of things, but after a certain time they all fit together, like a puzzle. The characters are deeply described, you get to know Chester and Rydal up close and personal. There are two faces of January and two faces of Rydal and Chester.
There is just one thing I didn't like very much: after Colette died things got easily forseenable. I already knew the end of the book before I had read it. But after all I recommend this book. But you will only read it once, because the story is quite simple at the end. Like every crime story this book lives of the tension.

The two parts.......2004-06-15

The first part of the story was absolutely great. The past of Rydal Keener is an important and interesting fact in the story and it's always behind the story and has a great influence.
The most interesting part is of course the little love story between Rydal and Colette and the reactions of Chester. Chester depends on Rydal, because he does not have any connections in Greece, but he loves his wife too and has to see to it that Rydal does not sleep with her. The tension is that I always wait for a reaction of Chester's and the lack of knowledge about the next step of Colette and Rydal.
When Colette dies, the tension is gone. It's just a normal crime with a bad and a good guy. For me it was a bit unrealistic, nobody would travel with a murderer on the same ship, who hates you and wants to kill you.
The end is not really interesting, the bad guy dies and the good guy has no problems anymore. Rydal escape from his problems too easily.
At last the beginning of the story is absolutely great, but the end is for me a bit unrealistic and it is not so thrilling as the first part of the story.
But I must say that I do not often like the end of books or movies in general.

one of the best by Highsmith.......2002-01-02

If you are already a Patricia Highsmith fan, I would highly recommend this book next.

While the book starts out somewhat slowly, I think this pacing helps set the overall mood of the book and allows the reader to settle into a Highsmith "high" in anticipation of another skillfully written book. At any rate, by chapter two, everything starts to wind/unwind as the book settles into typical Highsmith high-gear which, if you're like me, will soon leave you physicially and mentally breathless in an attempt to keep up!

The foreign setting of the book is also a delight, and the reader quickly becomes a part of the story, shadowing the 3 main characters in and out of the various cities, hotels, towns, and nefarious deeds that happen. There is also this undercurrent of very fine wit and humor throughout the book.

The ending is, of course, the best part. It's been many, many years since I was last compelled to rush to the last page, as I neared the end of the book, to find out what happened. The ending is also prime Highsmith and a bit of a surprise--not, perhaps, for the characters in the book or the storyline, but certainly for Highsmith during this particular period of her writing.

A great holiday/vacation read for anyone with a few days of peace to settle into the book--and to savor it from start to finish!

atmospheric and entertaining, but Highsmith has done better.......2001-04-17

'The Two Faces of January' is one of many Highsmith's lesser known works written after her early great successes ('The Talented Mr Ripley', 'Strangers on a Train') and before her decline in the 1980s. It follows the formula often used by Highsmith: two men, guilty or accused of murder, playing a psychological duel until either party breaks down. However in this novel the formula didn't work that well for me.

The story is about an American couple (hubby is a crook, wife is unfaithful) on vacation in Greece who 'accidently' kill a cop. Another American, a stranger to them, helps in covering up the crime. Of course they don't get off that easy, and the adventure begins. The relationship amongst these Americans takes odd turns, and ... you'll need to read the rest.

I suppose I found the book 'only entertaining' (versus enthralling) because I felt the main characters were generally unlikable. I had no empathy, let alone sympathy, for their plight. However perhaps the best part of the novel is the perfect capture of early 1960s vagabond European travelling (ie, before the era of jet travel and package tours) to be fascinating. So for this (probably unintentional) reason I found 'The Two Faces of January' to be a very fast read.

Book Description

In this quietly terrifying exploration of trust and friendship, a troubled young runaway arrives in Villeperce. And when, on the boy's behalf, Tom Ripley is drawn from his lovely estate in the French countryside to Berlin's seamy underworld and into a kidnapping plot that requires the most bizarre methods--and sinister acumen--for intervention, the icily amoral Ripley is transformed into a generous and compassionate projector.

Customer Reviews:

Step by (Floundering) Step.......2007-05-29

Patricia Highsmith is the master of unease. She has created a literary character who is almost completely amoral, and twists the readers' sense of justice because we find oursevles rooting for Tom Ripley; we do not want him to get caught in his devious schemes. The same is the case for the fourth book in the series, "The Boy Who Followed Ripley", as Tom once more finds himself caught up in a dangerous affair.

Tom, now married and settled in a small town just south of Paris, is living a somewhat peaceful, idle life. Then one day he encounters a young American boy, who is on the run from a horrible secret, and who looks to Tom out for guidance. Perhaps Tom recognizes something of himself in the boy, for he immediately and almost without question becomes the boy's protector and teacher. When the wealthy young heir is kidnapped right under Tom's nose in Berlin, he takes it upon himself to beat the kidnappers at their game, rushing headfirst and almost unthinkingly into the seemy underbelly of Berlin life.

"The Boy Who Followed Ripley" is as fast-paced as the other novels in the Ripley series, but is rather mundane in its plot. Just as quickly as Tom becomes attached to the boy, he is able to disengage himself from the messiness their association brings him. And while Highsmith is an excellent writer of mystery, offering readers a peek into the sordid world of criminals, this story lacks the polish and tenacity of the other Ripley works. It is a worthy addition, as it shows a more tender side of Tom Ripley, as he finds himself on the losing side for the first time in quite a while, but it is definitely not the strongest in the series.

The weakest in the Ripley series.......2005-06-07

One day in Villeperce, Tom Ripley is followed by an American teen-aged boy of 16 who calls himself Billy Rollins. He is currently working as a gardener with Madame Jeanne Boutin and claims to have read about Tom Ripley in the newspapers in the States. But Tom soon discovers that the boy is in fact Frank Pierson, the son of an American food magnate from Maine, who detested his father so profoundly that he killed him by pushing his wheelchair over the top of a cliff. Frank's mother Lily sent a private detective to France to look for the missing son...
A weak story line, unbelievable situations, characters who behave in a ridiculous fashion and plenty of clichés about Germany, Berlin and the gay scene are all aspects which contribute to the bad quality of this poorly designed suspense story. Neither "The Boy Who Followed Ripley" nor "Ripley Underground" nor "Ripley Underwater" match the original "The Talented Mr Ripley". Readers would be well advised to enjoy the latter and then forget any novel bearing the name "Ripley".

A Study of Conscience.......2005-01-29

Out of all the Ripley novels, this being the last instalment of a series of five books focuses more on the central psychological issue that most of the stories touch upon, and that is, having to live with oneself after committing a terrible crime, in this case, murder.

If you are acquainted with any of the Ripley novels, you will understand that their uniqueness lies in the disturbing thoughts and behaviour of its protagonist, as he is thoroughly devoid of conscience, having the capacity to commit murder, usually on a spontaneous whim, and rationalize the crime to such an extent, that we the readers, are totally convinced that the crime was justified. Ripley is a highly likable villain, and a type of villain we want to see succeed. He is cultured, well-mannered, loves his beautiful wife, an expert gardener, appreciates fine art, music and beautiful things, but is capable of incredible heinous acts without a second thought.

In this last novel, Ripley is living quite comfortably at Belle Ombre, his beautiful home in Villeperce, and seems to be heading for an easy retirement. At the café in town, a strange boy turns up, and through a series of events, the two become good friends. As it turns out, the boy is a runaway from the United States, a member of a wealthy family. The boy has a terrible secret, he has committed murder, and he's on the run from his a family and his conscience.

As the tale progresses, Ripley takes on the role of mentor, having murdered many times before, perhaps unconsciously or not, guides the boy psychologically towards a frame of mind or attitude, in order to live with murder. Ripley has the capacity to compartmentalize his thoughts, push his conscience conveniently aside, in order to live with himself. The young lad seems to have the same psychological predisposition, but as the story unfolds, the boy's behaviour points otherwise.

This last Ripley novel is different because Ripley takes on the role of mentor and rescuer, saving the boy from the clutches of some unsavoury characters, performing his unique brand of violence which surprises, leaving the reader cold. But in his role as saviour, we cheer him as he commits these unspeakable acts.

For me at least, the ending of the novel was not predictable, it was both surprising and incredibly sad on many levels. Most of all, this book is disturbing, illustrating the fact that as human beings, we have the capacity to justify virtually anything, including murder.

Can Ripley Be Successfully Emulated by Others?.......2004-11-06

The Boy Who Followed Ripley will either be your favorite Ripley book or it will be a large disappointment.

If you have not read any Ripley books, I suggest that you start with The Talented Mr. Ripley instead.

Those who will be disappointed by this book will be people who wanted a book just like one of the first three in the series. Those who will be very pleased are those who want to think through the implications of Ripley's character and who he is becoming. I have graded the book as an average of the two likely reactions.

We see a new side of Ripley in this book. He takes a troubled American teen under his wing and mentors him in the way that a friendly uncle or much older brother might. In the process, Ripley reveals more of himself to the boy than to anyone else. Ripley also ends up musing and seeing his own marriage and history in a new light as he understands the boy's problems.

I'm sorry that I cannot go into the story in more detail. To do so would simply spoil the plot development for you.

If you like character development with long stretches of little plot development, this book will be a lot of fun. If you crave the constant action of The Talented Mr. Ripley, this book will drag slowly in long sections for you.

Unless you are ambivalent about the Tom Ripley character, I do suggest that you read the book . . . even if it won't be your favorite.

And I thought this was going to be a GOOD one..........2004-07-23

What a shame that a better work has not "followed" in the footsteps of Highsmith's first three Ripley novels. While the setup is intriguing and has great potential, the entire premise is marred by poor pacing; do we really need to have page after page of (what amounts to) a Berlin travelogue, as Tom Ripley and Frank visit the zoo...and then have a light lunch....and then go for a drive...and then take a walk in the forest. The kidnapping is the most engaging section of the novel - what a pity that it takes nearly half the book to even reach it. Though some may find Frank Pierson an interesting character, I was soon disappointed to see that he was reduced to a maudlin mass of ennui. There is nothing exciting or dramatic (or even interesting, for that matter) in a character who essentially "mopes" his way through the entire novel, brooding on the boorish notion that his girlfriend has gone off with another boy because he has travelled to France. Of all the Ripley books, this was the one I had the highest hopes for, and I was sorely disappointed; read it if you intend on reading all of them, but know that it's a flawed work at best.

Average customer rating:

A Nice Addition to the Series
An amoral man of leisure
Under Ground, Slightly Over Done
A Married Ripley Dabbles in Double Dealing
Amoralists can't all be this dull.

Ripley Under Ground
Patricia Highsmith
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Ripley's Game
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ASIN: 0679742301
Release Date: 1992-09-01

Book Description

In this harrowing illumination of the psychotic mind, the enviable Tom Ripley has a lovely house in the French countryside, a beautiful and very rich wife, and an art collection worthy of a connoisseur. But such a gracious life has not come easily. One inopportune inquiry, one inconvenient friend, and Ripley's world will come tumbling down--unless he takes decisive steps. In a mesmerizing novel that coolly subverts all traditional notions of literary justice, Ripley enthralls us even as we watch him perform acts of pure and unspeakable evil.

Customer Reviews:

A Nice Addition to the Series.......2007-05-17

I read Ripley Under Ground following the first novel in the series. Patricia Highsmith's writing a succinct and beautifully descriptive, and she builds the story chapter by chapter until it becomes hard to put down. The story has been explained well by other reviewers and revolves around a British artist - Derwatt - who presumably drowned himself on the island of Icaria in his disappointment over his career. His friends, ironically, manage to make the dead artist famous by selling his paintings and drawings but they run out of art works to sell. Enter Tom Ripley with the solution: have someone paint pictures in the Derwatt style. Derwatt become a cottage industry with his own line of art supplies with an artist - Bernard Tufts - turning out Derwatt paintings. As a cover, Derwatt is painting away in an obscure village in Mexico and will not reveal the name. Everything is good until someone looks too closely and thinks Derwatt is being forged.

Without giving away much more of the story, the inquisitive art collector meets a sticky end and Bernard, the art forger, begins to fall apart. Tom Ripley is called on to deftly manage the growing police investigation as his many houseguests - including a Greenleaf cousin and Bernard - come to stay at his house. And his wife Heloise, conveniently in Greece during the early part of the book, returns home. The story builds nicely as the police want to question the illusive Derwatt about this missing art collector. Ultimately, however, Ms. Highsmith ends the book without resolving the whereabouts of the art collector but Bernard becomes a useful stand-in for Derwatt.

The loose end is a bit troublesome and I thought of some ways in which the story could have been resolved. Ripley could have implicated Bernard as the art collector's murderer because Bernard felt that Derwatt had been insulted by the charges of forgery. It also might have been interesting if Ripley had found the real Derwatt when he was searching for Bernard, as a disinterested observed of his own fame.

Despite the loose end Ripley Under Ground is a very engaging book that should delight lovers of the Ripley series.

An amoral man of leisure.......2007-05-07

Several years after he murdered Dickie Greenleaf and went through the events described in "The Talented Mr. Ripley," we now find a more domesticated Tom Ripley living as a man of leisure in a beautiful old country house with a lovely garden in France, with his young, blond French wife Heloise. Tom, living on the money that Dickie "left" to him (in a fake will drawn up by Tom himself after he murdered Dickie), plus his wife's family's generous allowance, supplements his income (and adds some excitment to a rather staid life) by having a stake in a bogus art dealership that sells paintings from the mysterious Derwatt. Unbeknownst to the general public, Derwatt actually committed suicide years before, and the new Derwatt paintings are being painted by Bernard Tufts, a secret business partner of Tom, who's an expert counterfeiter of Derwatt's art. But what's one to do when this fraudalent scheme is discovered by an avid Derwatt fan?

Though Ripley is now older, wiser and more circumspect than he was in the prior novel, he hasn't changed at all in one respect: he will not let anything or anyone stand in the way of his blissful existence, even if he has to lie, cheat and murder. Still a master of imitation, Ripley also has to assume the role of different persona, including that of Derwatt himself, in order to get away with his various crimes.

The problem I had with "Ripley Under Ground," was the same thing I had with "The Talented Mr. Ripley," but even more so. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at h