The Talented Mr. Ripley, Ripley Under Ground, Ripley's Game: Introduction by Grey Gowrie Hardcover - 1999

From the jacket flap

Three classic crime novels by a master of the macabre appear here together in
hardcover for the first time. Suave, agreeable, and completely amoral, Patricia Highsmith's hero, the
inimitable Tom Ripley, stops at nothing--not even murder-- to accomplish hisgoals. In achieving for himself the opulent life that he was denied as a child,
Ripley shows himself to be a master of illusion and manipulation and adisturbingly sympathetic combination of genius and psychopath. As Highsmith
navigates the mesmerizing tangle of Ripley's deadly and sinister games, she turnsthe mystery genre inside out and takes us into the mind of a man utterly
indifferent to evil. The Talented Mr. Ripley
In a chilling literary hall of mirrors, Patricia Highsmith introduces Tom Ripley. Like a hero in a latter-day Henry James novel, is sent to Italy with a commission to coax a prodigal young American back to his wealthy father. But Ripley finds himself very fond of Dickie Greenleaf. He wants to be like him--exactly like him. Suave, agreeable, and utterly amoral, Ripley stops at nothing--certainly not only one murder--to accomplish his goal. Turning the mystery form inside out, Highsmith shows the terrifying abilities afforded to a man unhindered by the concept of evil. Ripley Under Ground
In this harrowing illumination of the psychotic mind, the enviable Tom Ripley has a lovely house in the French countryside, a beautiful and very rich wife, and an art collection worthy of a connoisseur. But such a gracious life has not come easily. One inopportune inquiry, one inconvenient friend, and Ripley's world will come tumbling down--unless he takes decisive steps. In a mesmerizingnovel that coolly subverts all traditional notions of literary justice, Ripley enthralls us even as we watch him perform acts of pure and unspeakable evil. Ripley's Game
Connoisseur of art, harpsichord aficionado, gardener extraordinaire, and genius of improvisational murder, the inimitable Tom Ripley finds his complacency shaken when he is scorned at a posh gala. While an ordinary psychopath might repay the insult with some mild act of retribution, what Ripley has in mind is far more subtle, and infinitely more sinister. A social slight doesn't warrant murder of course-- just a chain of events that may lead to it.

Media reviews

“Patricia Highsmith is often called a mystery or crime writer, which is a bit like calling Picasso a draftsman.”—CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER“One of our greatest modernist writers.”—Gore Vidal“Highsmith's dark and sometimes savage humor, and the intelligence that informs her precise and hard-edged prose, puts one in mind of Jonathan Swift and Evelyn Waugh.”—NEWSDAY“[Highsmith] has created a world of her own-a world claustrophobic and irrational which we enter each time with a sense of personal danger.”—Graham Greene“Highsmith's novels are peerlessly disturbing . . . bad dreams that keep us thrashing for the rest of the night.”—THE NEW YORKER“For eliciting the menace that lurks in familiar surroundings, there's no one like Patricia Highsmith.”—TIME

Citations

• Entertainment Weekly, 01/21/2000, Page 99
• Ingram Advance, 10/01/1999, Page 143
• Library Journal, 11/01/1999, Page 130