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Product Description
Product Description
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 this gracious life has not come easily; it is based on murder, forgery, and smuggling, and could topple at any moment.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
From the Back Cover
'Ripley Under Ground is Highsmith back on top of her most enjoyable humour-and
horrors form' Sunday Telegraph
The gallery is staging another Derwatt exhibition, but now an American collector
claims that the expensive masterpiece he bought three years ago is a fake. It is, of
course, and he wants to talk to Derwatt but he, inconveniently, is dead.
Ripley needs the perfect solution to keep his role in te fraud a secret and his reputation
clean but not everyone's nerves are as steady as his. Especially when it comes to
murder.
'By her hypnotic art Patricia Highsmith puts the suspense story into a toweringly high
place in the hierarchy of fiction' The Times
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a good book but it is perhaps not quite as good as The Talented Mr Ripley. How could it be? All the same, it's a rich, compelling story with great locations.
Ripley is more mature here. He is not the gauche boy he was in the previous book who still had so much to learn. Nor is Ripley the underdog - he has fashioned a nice little life for himself in which he enjoys considerable leisure and luxury.
The means by which Ripley has arrived at his new found wealth are criminal and he must exercise further criminality in order to maintain his lovely life. Murder, impersonation, fantastic lies - Ripley is at it again and he must constantly plot, plan and scheme in order to stay ahead of the law.
All this in a sea of superb writing with Highsmith's characteristic sharpness, pace and attention to detail. This book is different to its predecessor, mostly because Ripley is different and his circumstances have certainly changed. I'm not sure that I understand Ripley any better after this book, but then again, his unusualness is part of his appeal.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This second Ripley novel sees our 'hero' Tom Ripley settled in France with his wife, Heloise, about 6 years after the Dickie Greenleaf affair in Italy described in The Talented Mr Ripley.
Complicit in a fraud to fake the paintings of the in-fact dead Derwatt, Ripley must take action when the police begin to suspect that the 'new' Derwatts (supposedly painted by the artist while living in seclusion in Mexico) are faked. Donning a fake beard, Ripley makes an appearance as Derwatt at the Buckmaster Gallery in London attracting the attention of a certain American Derwatt collector, Murchison.
Ripley Under Ground revisits the black humour seen first in The Talented Mr Ripley, and begins to develop more fully the complex character of Tom Ripley who now has to contend with combining murder and deceit with his domestic life at 'Belle Ombre'.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Another adventure with Patricia Highsmith’s lovely character Thomas Ripley. This book follows the author’s “The Talented Mr Ripley” so that the reader is already acquainted with most of the protagonists like Dick and Chris Greenleaf, Bernard Murchisson or Tom’s wife Heloise. When Ed Banbury and Jeff Constant, owners of the Buckmaster Gallery in London, decide to open a new show featuring paintings by the famous Derwatt, the situation becomes uncomfortable when the American collector, Murchisson, claims that a painting he bought three years ago is a fake. Knowing that Derwatt died years ago in Greece and that Bernard had been forging paintings by “Derwatt”, allegedly living in a remote village in Mexico, it will take all of Ripley’s talent to clean the reputation of the Buckmaster Gallery, as Murchisson’s visit to London is imminent. Mrs Highsmith’s highly successful ingredients are all present in this novel: crime, horror, humour and suspense.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Rather old-fashioned?
I find Highsmilth's style of writng rather old-fashioned and there are some things that seem amusing today (like taking scissors on a plane!) but the plot is sound. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Alison Mallaghan
Very good customer service
Unfortunately, no doubt due to the royal mail, I never received this book! However I got a reply to my email asking whether it had been sent out the next day, and was given a... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Helen
Better than the first book
Like The Talented Mr. Ripley, this book is beautifully written and Ripley's character has matured. By now, I have become accustomed to his criminal instincts and enjoyed this book... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Donald Hughes
Great Bookseller. Congratulations
I am greatly impressed by the speedy service of this bookseller. The book was in excellent condition as described. I couldn't have asked for a better service than this.
Published 15 months ago by David J. Weeks
A Married Ripley Dabbles in Double Dealing
Ripley Under Ground is the second book in the Ripley series. The book suffers in comparison with the astonishing first book in the series, The Talented Mr. Ripley. Read more
Published on 13 Nov 2004 by Donald Mitchell
Typically Ripley
After the Ripley movie made its hit, I was at first tempted to buy the original work, but killed the thought after knowing how many changes the movie had made to the book. Read more
Published on 27 Sep 2000
just try and put this book down
I read alot of books but usually I get bored, hire the film to watch the ending, this book was a different story. Read more
Published on 4 May 2000
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