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Patricia Highsmith Message Board 1/1/2012
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Highsmith has written!

Author Highsmith's Book Reviews

A Suspension of Mercy
A mystery writer who fantasizes about killing his wife comes under police scrutiny when she goes missing. Sydney Bartleby, a struggling TV mystery writer, is losing patience with his wife, Alicia. He feels disrespected and often wonders if their marriage, and their move to a small town in the country, were mistakes. His time is spent working on treatments, which he mails to his writing partner, Alex Polk-Faraday. Alicia meets the new next door neighbor, ...
Deep Water
The main character, Victor Van Allen is married to a woman who enjoys having affairs. As the story progresses Vic decides it's time for him to do something about it and proceeds to kill his wife's lovers. At the end of the story he turns on her, creating a thrilling climax. ...
Found In The Street
Ralph finds a wallet while walking in Greenwich Village and it turns his life upside down. Ralph is a bit odd even though he fancies himself a model citizen. He finds a wallet and returns it, but the gesture opens a can of worms. Once Ralph gets home he opens it to find crisp new twenties, two-hundred sixty dollars, three addresses, credit cards and identification for (Jack) John Mayes Sutherland. Apparently, Sutherland worked as a journalist for the Fr...
Ripley Under Ground
Tom Ripley, the American conman and sociopathic killer, returns in the second entry in Highsmith's series. Now living in a villa in southern France, Tom is almost completely retired from his life of crime, drawing income from his wealthy wife's family and a will that he forged years before. He spends his days painting, gardening, and playing the harpsichord. But Tom still operates one illicit enterprise: in London, there is a gallery that sells the...

Highsmith booklist

Ripley Under Water
In the final Ripley book, Tom Ripley, lovable sociopath, has retired to the country with his beautiful wife, spending his days painting and gardening, living a happy life...until a pair of obnoxious Americans move nearby, threatening to expose Ripley's secrets....
Ripley's Game
Tom Ripley, the sociopathic main character of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Ripley Under Ground" returns for a third entry in the series in "Ripley's Game." Having recently survived an investigation by the police in regards to a death, a disappearance, and allegations of art forgery, Ripley settles back into his relaxing existence at his villa in south France. Attending a party thrown by Jonathan Trevanny, an English picture-framer dying slowly of le...
The Birds Poised To Fly
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The Blunderer
Walter Stackhouse fantasizes about killing his wife and when she disappears he is relentlessly pursued as a suspect. Walter Stackhouse, an unfulfilled lawyer living in the suburbs of New York City, wants nothing more than to be rid of his wife, until she disappears while traveling and he becomes desperate to convince investigators that he is innocent. Walter feels bored and annoyed by his wife Clara and has fallen under the spell of the a sweet, easyg...
The Boy Who Followed Ripley
Tom Ripley, now a country gentleman living in France, befriends a young American runaway, and learns that the boy has a guilty consicence. This book is far more introspective than the first three Ripley books; we see Ripley's paternal side, his desire to set things right, as well as his comic flair. The humor that has always been lurking in the Ripley stories finally shows up in this one....
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Tom Ripley is a small-time American conman and stone-cold sociopath. As the book opens, Ripley, mistaken for an old friend of erstwhile shipping heir Dickie Greenleaf, is given an offer by Dickie's wealthy parents: go to the Italian village where Dickie is staying with his fiancee and convince him to return. Ripley, who is, in fact, wanted by the law, accepts. Traveling to Italy, Ripley befriends both Dickie and his novel-writing fiancee, Marge. Altho...

Patricia Highsmith list of books

This Sweet Sickness
David Kelsey is obsessed with a married woman with whom he once had a relationship. He has bought a house for them to live in under another name. He writes to her hoping to persuade her to meet him. He calls her on the phone. He refuses to believe that she loves her husband and wants no part of him, always finding an excuse for why she won't meet him. The novel builds up suspense over what he will do when he finally does boil over. The beginning ...