Now part of American film and literary lore, Tom Ripley, "a bisexual psychopath
and art forger who murders without remorse when his comforts are threatened" (Ne
w York Times Book Review), was Patricia Highsmith's favorite creation. In these
volumes, we find Ripley ensconced on a French estate with a wealthy wife, a worl
d-class art collection, and a past to hide. In Ripley Under Ground (1970), an ar
t forgery goes awry and Ripley is threatened with exposure; in The Boy Who Follo
wed Ripley (1980), Highsmith explores Ripley's bizarrely paternal relationship w
ith a troubled young runaway, whose abduction draws them into Berlin's seamy und
erworld; and in Ripley Under Water (1991), Ripley is confronted by a snooping Am
erican couple obsessed with the disappearance of an art collector who visited Ri
pley years before. More than any other American literary character, Ripley provi
des "a lens to peer into the sinister machinations of human behavior" (John Free
man, Pittsburgh Gazette).
