Living on his French
estate with his elegant heiress wife, Tom Ripley, on the cusp of middle
age, is no longer the striving chancer of The Talented Mr. Ripley.
Having accrued considerable wealth through a long career of crime, he
tires of his idyllic retirement. Highsmith's chameleon longs to get back
in the game, so when a friend needs a favour, he relishes the
opportunity. Tom Ripley detests murder. Unless it is absolutely
necessary. Wherever possible, he prefers someone else to do the dirty
work. In this case, someone with no criminal record who can be
manipulated to commit 'two simple murders' for a very generous fee.
My Review:
Ripley is enjoying a quiet time at his home in France when
Reeves gets in touch with a problem. Rival Mafia groups are setting up
in his area and Reeves wants them gone, hatching a plot to kill one from
each gang to start a war between them and get the police involved.
Ripley knows he is being watched by suspicious police and declines
getting involved but Reeves asks him if he knows of anyone who might do
the jobs. It is only when Ripley gets a grudge against another local man
that he gives that name to Reeves and opens up a world of trouble for
both of them.
Jonathan has been diagnosed with cancer and had
once been very rude to Ripley at a party, something that Ripley hasn't
forgotten. He decides to get his own back by starting a rumour that
Jonathan is dying, causing the man to start wondering if his doctors are
telling him the truth and getting him paranoid. Then Ripley gives
Jonathan's name to Reeves who offers his appointments with a specialist
in return for killing a Mafia operative. At first Jonathan finds the
idea of being a hit man crazy but as his fears over dying grow, he
starts to realise that the money could set his family up for life and he
starts to come round to the idea. Now Ripley wonders if he did the
right thing getting Jonathan mixed up with these people and resolves to
help.
I did find Jonathan's story dragged a bit and it went into
so much detail about his family life, his in-laws, his medical condition
and it focused more on him than Ripley for the first part of the book. I
wasn't sure I greatly liked Jonathan so it was harder to actually feel
sympathy for his medical situation. I much prefered when the plot
brought Ripley into contact with Jonathan and they are involved in the
murder together. For some reason I find that I love Ripley as a
character, and it is fun to get inside his head and see how his mind is
working. I'm surprised that Ripley got Jonathan involved as it brings
unwanted attention to the area when Ripley is trying to lie low. It
seems petty to get a guy involved with gangsters because he was rude to
you at a party! I think it is this side of Ripley that fascinates me so
much.
When the story gets to Ripley and Jonathan becoming
co-plotters the story is much more interesting to read. I love Ripley
because he is complex and interesting, and even his domestic worries can
be fascinating never mind his murder missions! I enjoy watching him
plotting and then trying to cover his tracks, and as the plot got more
exciting, I was drawn further into it. In the end I found the book
enjoyable as I did with the other books in the series so far. I
certainly will be reading the other books at some point to see what else
Ripley gets up to.
Read November 2017.
3 stars.
