Introducing Mr. Ripley

I just read Ripley Under Water by Patricia Highsmith, a book about a murderer who has new neighbours who might have found him out.

On the front cover, the Times says "The Ripley books are marvellously, insanely readable."

Readable? Yes. Page turner? Not really. Marvellous? Sorry, but no.

It was actually quite interesting, looking through the eyes of a killer. You see how normal he is, in everyday life...but faced with a problem, one of the solutions is: to kill.

And when I say "normal", I assure you that I mean really normal. And nice. At a moment in the book Ripley was thinking "good neighbourly relations are important" or something to that effect. I can just imagine the neighbours' reactions if ever Ripley got caught. "Oh, he was such a nice man! Whoever would have thought?!"

But the story moves a little to slowly for my liking...I wonder whether it's just this one, whether the others (yes, there are more books about Mr. Ripley) are more exciting. After all, it would depend on the problem faced by our Mr. Ripley, wouldn't it?

I have another book by Patricia Highsmith lined up to read...one not about Ripley, though. (I wonder whether I had already read any of her books) There were other Ripley books in the library when I borrowed this one, but I thought it best to try one first...in case I didn't like it at all. Now I might try another one...though if it turns out to be as slowly evolving, I'd probably drop the Ripley books altogether!