Having accrued considerable wealth through a fortuitous marriage and a long career of crime, Tom Ripley finds his idyllic retirement is … a bit dull, actually. In this third outing for Patricia Highsmith's "suave, agreeable, and utterly amoral" antihero, Ripley has an itch to get back in the game, and seizes the opportunity when a friend needs a favor. Ordinarily Ripley detests murder, unless it is absolutely necessary. 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."To call Patricia Highsmith a thriller writer is true but not the whole truth: her books have stylistic texture, psychological depth, mesmeric readability."—Sunday Times (London)