Today’s book: Ripley’s Game

Most of you will remember Tom Ripley from the 1999 movie The Talented Mr. Ripley starring Matt Damon or my review of the original novel. Patricia Highsmith actually wrote five Ripley novels and Ripley’s Game is the third in sequence. I preferred the first novel but I do believe this one was interesting enough to get me to try and find numbers four and five (reviews generally say to skip the second one). Ripley is not so much the protagonist in this story but the main supporting character. Ripley connives to set Jonathon Trevanny, a dying man, down a path of little good and ends up most likely regretting his choice; Highsmith tends to leave at least some emotional results up to the reader to discern. The setting is mainly a couple of small French towns with a trip to Munich and a train ride and some care is taken to bring these villages to life. Not a thrill a minute but the kind of story where you appreciate the subtlety and emotional rat traps.