The Talented Mr Ripley

Patricia Highsmith

Editions

Review

Tom Ripley is twenty-five and one step ahead of his creditors.  Offered the chance of a free trip to Europe, he eagerly accepts and sets off to Naples, charged with persuading Dickie Greenleaf, wealthy son of an even wealthier businessman, to return to his parents in the States.  Tom finds he admires Dickie enormously; envies him, too…

This is a tense, compelling story of an extraordinary, amoral character - who charms the reader, and makes the most vicious acts seem logical.  It's easy to see why Hitchcock, who had a predilection for the anti-hero, admired the writing of Highsmith (he filmed her first novel Strangers On A Train pbk £6.99), and I defy you not to sympathise with Ripley.

Will he get away with it?  Does the fact that there's a later Highsmith novel called Ripley Under Ground pbk £6.99 anticipate the answer to the previous question? - review by Dan Fenton