Title: The Talented Mr. Ripley

Author: Patricia Highsmith

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 268

Rating: 3.5/5

I whizzed through this book for the simple reason that I picked it up from a used bookstore in Stoke Mandeville hospital after I’d been admitted overnight because of an abscess in my leg. I had no idea that I’d be spending the night there and so I didn’t have enough books to see me through.

But it wasn’t as though I picked this up because there wasn’t any choice. I’d actually had my eye on it for a while in a vague sort of way, even though I had no idea what it was about. It turned out to be right up my street, a kind of crime/thriller novel with an antihero who’s going about bumping people off for his own financial gain.

True, I didn’t find Ripley to be likeable and so I was actively rooting for him to get caught, but that didn’t really hamper my enjoyment. It’s also the first book in a series, although it worked pretty well as a standalone and so I have no plans to ever continue. I’ll watch the movie, though.

It’s actually an interesting little book with a lot going for it, and while my enjoyment of it was only so so, I don’t think that’s the fault of the author. I think it’s more because of the position I was in at the time. I had nothing to do except to lie in bed with an IV in my arm while reading it.

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