The Talented Mr. Ripley
by Patricia Highsmith
Summary
Petty con man Tom Ripley is sent to Italy to persuade a wealthy expatriate's son to return home, but instead grows so consumed by envy for the young man's charmed life that he kills him and assumes his identity, improvising an ever more precarious series of lies to keep the impersonation alive. Highsmith writes from deep inside Ripley's rationalizations, making a cold blooded murderer disturbingly sympathetic and even charming to the reader. The novel launched a series of sequels and established Ripley as one of crime fiction's most unsettling antiheroes.
Historical Context & Significance
The novel was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel but lost to Margaret Millar's psychological thriller Beast in View at the 1956 ceremony. Highsmith's reputation as a master of psychological suspense grew steadily over the following decades despite this early loss.