Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith see more by Patricia Highsmith Studio Bloomsbury Publishing PLCLabel Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Closer Look List Price: £6.99 From: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC From: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Salesrank: 551428 Released: 2003-05-19 You Save: £ (%)! Lowest New Price: Click Here  Pages: 256 Format: Paperback Customer Rating: Also Shop International: (Not all items available internationally)          Customer Reviews: 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? In this novel we return to the decidedly unfortunate Mr Murchison, killed by Ripley in Ripley Under Ground the third book of the series, sent to a watery grave in the River Loing, wrapped in tarpaulin. Meddling by a sinister couple who have moved in nearby and for no particular reason seem to have taken a strong dislike to Ripley threatens the exposure of this particular crime. They are disposed of by a most - again - fortunate accident that, frankly, seems highly unlikely. But who am I to quibble? Highsmith - I salute you! One reads on quite equably, such is Highsmith's magical spell surrounding the Ripley ménage. His complaisant wife, two London chums who pop across to help him, and the redoubtable Madame Annette, who, one must suspect has picked up more than a smattering of English by now, and is, perhaps, not quite as innocent of Ripley's strange career as she seems. Music, painting, delicious meals, a beautiful house, a little light gardening, with the odd murder thrown in - such is M. Ripley's life. Improbabilities aside, one wishes it to long continue. However, sadly, this is the last of the Ripley books. 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. Never mind the lifeless writing, here are some mind-boggling plotholes. 1. Ripley gets away with several murders because Highsmith asks us to believe that the police in the States, in France, in Italy and in London are dimmer than burned out lightbulbs. Example - if Pritchard (in "Underwater") wants to drag French canals looking for Murchison's corpse, why did not the French police do so? Dragging local waters is the FIRST thing the police do when someone disappears. 2.Too many characters seem to have no moral conscience whatsoever. Cynthia KNOWS Ripley is a murderer, as do the owners of the Buckmaster Gallery. In all probability, Heloise knows too. So in law they are all accessories after the fact, and liable to criminal charges. So one of them would surely have decided he/she has too much to lose and informed on Ripley. 3.Ripley can impersonate young Americans, dead artists, French policemen . . Ripley can throw entire police forces, the fathers of murder victims, the wife of murder victims etc off the scent with "Oh, he must have committed suicide" or "I know I was the last person to see him alive, but what does that prove? So - he vanished. Don't look at me?" In "Underground", Murchison visits Ripley's at his house. On the word of the housekeeper, the police accept that Ripley dropped Murchison at the airport - where he vanishes into thin air. Who might have kidnapped or abducted him and why is not touched upon and if it is, Ripley counters with "How should I know?" A young man visiting Belle Ombre at the time Murchison vanishes doesn't tell the French police that he has just discovered the newly-dug grave where Ripley first buried Murchison. And who was this young man? Why, it was Dickie Greenleaf's cousin or brother - who cares! Come ON! In real life, the cops would have been all over Belle Ombre. And remember, folks, in "The Talented. . ." Ripley forges the Will of his first victim in order to inherit, although various banks have already been suspicious of his forged "Greenleaf" signatures on bank withdrawals and tranfers. The forged signature on the forged Will is unwitnessed, but that doesn't trouble the author and presumably the reader isn't meant to notice. Minor point. Even French speakers with no English at all can pronounce "Tom". They DO NOT say "Tome" (You want proof? What is the French for "no"? Now show me a French speaker who pronounces it with the long vowel. Now repeat this exercise with the French for "good". The French do not say "bone") And how many shots at "Pritchard" does an intelligent woman like Heloise need before she gets it right? Presumably these mispronounciations are attempts at humour, or local colour, or something . . . . . Stieg Larsson might have made these plots and characters work. The task was quite beyond Highsmith. How on EARTH could a a Sunday Times reviewer say this flaccid, mind-numbing prose is "as horrifyingly insistent as strange footsteps in the fog"? One star is two too many. 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. 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! 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. 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! A gripping finale 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... Related Categories: >> >>Books >>Subjects >>Crime, Thrillers & Mystery >>Authors, A-Z >>H >>Highsmith, Patricia