"Ripley is an unmistakable descendant of Gatsby, that 'penniless young man without a past' who will stop at nothing."—Frank RichNow part of American film and literary lore, Tom Ripley, "a bisexual psychopath and art forger who murders without remorse when his comforts are threatened" (New 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 world-class art collection, and a past to hide. InRipley Under Ground(1970), an art forgery goes awry and Ripley is threatened with exposure; inThe Boy Who Followed Ripley(1980), Highsmith explores Ripley's bizarrely paternal relationship with a troubled young runaway, whose abduction draws them into Berlin's seamy underworld; and inRipley Under Water(1991), Ripley is confronted by a snooping American couple obsessed with the disappearance of an art collector who visited Ripley years before. More than any other American literary character, Ripley provides "a lens to peer into the sinister machinations of human behavior" (John Freeman,Pittsburgh Gazette).Review"In Ripley Under Ground Patricia Highsmith is in her most brilliant form" Daily Telegraph "The No.1 Greatest Crime Writer" The Times "Ripley Under Ground is Highsmith back on top of her most enjoyable humour-and-horrors form" Sunday Telegraph "By her hypnotic art Highsmith puts the suspense story into a toweringly high place in the hierachy of fiction" The Times "The Ripley books are marvellously, insanely readable" The TimesFrom the Inside FlapIn 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.