(Downloaded on my Kindle for $3.) After watching Netflix's Ripley, based on Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, I discovered there were five Ripley novels and started reading this one, the second in the series, published in 1970, several years after the initial one. These books are not whodunits, but who-will-get-murdered? and how-will-Ripley-get-away-with-it. In the first book, Ripley takes over the identity of Dickie Greenleaf, a trust-fund spoiled brat living in beautiful Italy. In Ripley Underground, the bisexual sociopath is living comfortably in the South of France with a gorgeous wife, a beautiful house with a housekeeper and enough money to live a life of leisure. But he can't keep away from the sleazy side, involving himself with a ring of art forgers. Highsmith is expert at depicting how seemingly everyday, moral people can be drawn into crime and murder. I had problems with the latter half of the book which I can't go into without revealing spoilers. (I didn't believe certain Ripley's machinations or his getting away with certain acts.) But the series was intriguing enough to make me start the next book as soon as I finished this one.
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