- Paperback: 309 pages
- Publisher: Vintage Books; 1st Vintage Crime/Black Lizard Ed edition (1 Nov 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679748091
- ISBN-13: 978-0679748090
- Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 13 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,103,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Sunday Times
'Compelling ... Highsmith's writing is as horrifyingly insistent as strange footsteps in the fog'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'A gripping addition to the Ripliad' Daily Telegraph 'Compelling ... Highsmith's writing is as insistent as strange footsteps in the fog' Sunday Times 'The Ripley books are marvellously, insanely readable' The Times 'Ripley is back, as polite and lethal as ever ... he does what he wants and gets away with it. That's why we like him' Time Out
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This final installment in the 5-novel 'Ripliad' sees the tables turned on Tom Ripley. Living a quiet and comfortable life in Belle Ombre with Heloise and Madame Annette, Tom finds himself the victim of an obssessive American couple seemingly bent on exposing Tom's murder of Murchison six years previously. The Pritchards (or 'Preekhards' as Heloise hilariously calls them) make the hairs on the back of your head stand up as they photograph Belle Ombre, follow Tom to Tangier, threaten, mock and finally inform upon our beleagured anti-hero. Will Tom be able to foil their plans to ruin him? Can his luck hold out for a 5th time?
The triumph of the Ripley novels lies in their knack of seducing the reader to Ripley's point of view. Tom Ripley is a man of contradictions: a man who is capable of bludgeoning someone to death, but squeamish about cooking lobsters; a man who apparently has no conscience, but is equally capable of great tenderness towards Heloise, Frank Pierson, and even Dickie Greenleaf. Is he a psychopath? an amoral pragmatist? or just someone who wants to tend his dahlias in peace and enjoy la dolce vita? Five novels down the line, and I still can't decide...
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Tom Ripley is being stalked by a strange American couple who are rather too familiar with how he came into his very comfortable lifestyle.Tom may well be a very empathetic sociopath but he really doesn't want to be pressured over the murder,forgery and deception in his past.A lot of the fun and palpable tension in the book comes from trying to guess just how far Tom can be pushed.A near perfect example of narrative seduction,only when you start to analyse his actions do you begin to see the real cruelty and blank amorality within.A masterpiece.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you have enjoyed the Ripley series of books, you will undoubtedly want to read the final book, Ripley Under Water.
This book is a continuation of the story line of Ripley Under Ground, as the title suggests. This book is, however, less engaging and dramatic than Ripley Under Ground.
What Makes Ripley Under Water noteworthy is its boding sense of menace and paranoia. What would it be like to be stalked by someone who wants to do you harm? How would you feel? Those are the themes that are well developed in this book.
An American couple in their thirties, David and Janice Pritchard, move into Tom Ripley's neighborhood. Tom has a slight recollection of seeing them before somewhere. Soon he begins receiving strange telephone calls from someone claiming to be a person Ripley killed many years before. The Americans invite Ripley and his wife for a drink. Ripley goes alone and finds that the couple is obsessed with him, and knows quite a bit about his past misdeeds. The man even threatens Ripley. Soon thereafter the couple is seen outside of Ripley's home taking photographs.
Ripley's annoyed, but trying to stay cool. But when the man shows up in Morocco during the Ripley's' vacation, it's too much. Ripley begins to fight back in typical Ripley fashion. Events escalate when Ripley and Pritchard return to France.
My main complaint about the book is that the end doesn't live up to the suspense that leads up to it. As a result, I was left feeling dissatisfied with the story.
On the good side, the psychological development is very fine. In addition, the book is full of subtle puns and ironies . . . such as Ripley, who has killed so many men being freaked out by having to be in the kitchen while live lobsters are cooked.
Even if you are paranoid, remember that someone may really be after you!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not exactly a masterpiece!
I definately think these five books should be read in order; certainly this one can only really make sense if you've read "Ripley Under Ground". Read more
Published 24 days ago by Alison Mallaghan
This book has, after twenty years, worn well.
Patricia Highsmith was not the first crime writer to take as her protagonist a man who was prepared to commit murder to get his own way, nor by any means the last. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mr Creepy
I recommend this book the characters' diets notwithstanding
The Ripley books are engagingly absorbing,even although one can hazard a guess that Ripley will once more "get away with it" given the content of the original book... Read more
Published on 14 April 2010 by C. J. Cooper
Highsmith's magical spell
There is only the merest smidgeon of disappointment here, in that some of the events seem rather timely and fortunate. Is Ripley the most fortunate psychopath in existence? Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
They CAN get worse . . .
Having read "The Talented . . ", "Ripley Underground" and "Ripley's Game", I read "Ripley Underwater" to find out if this lamentable series could get any worse. Answer is Yes. Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2009 by Yellow Duck
A Stalking Nemesis Looms
If you have enjoyed the Ripley series of books, you will undoubtedly want to read the final book, Ripley Under Water. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2004 by Donald Mitchell
Is it the end for Ripley?
The Ripley series is very well written, very enjoyable, and worrying;why is this repressed psychotic murderer so appealing? Read more
Published on 8 May 2003 by Bill Kelly
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