Sunday 9 August 2009

Ripley Under Water


The fifth and final CD in the Ripley Mysteries series was probably the most enjoyable as all. Ripley Under Water begins splendidly, with Tom receiving a phone call, supposedly from Dickie Greenleaf – the first person he murdered, years ago.

It soon becomes apparent that someone is obsessed with Tom – and it proves to be a new neighbour, a fellow American called Pritchard, who has moved in to the village with his brittle wife. Pritchard, it seems, is a sadist who beats up his wife every now and then. He has found out about Tom’s murky past, and is determined to subject him to mental torture.

Tom is, of course, not a good man to cross, and before long he is pitting his wits against Pritchard. It becomes increasingly clear that both men cannot survive. But who will be victor, and who the vanquished? And how many other people will suffer collateral damage?

I thought this story was beautifully done. The ending wasn’t entirely satisfactory, to my mind, but it was elegant and certainly in keeping with Highsmith’s eccentric yet fascinating style of story-telling

The five CDs in this set make for great, off-beat listening. Even if you are not an ardent Highsmith fan, I think you will probably enjoy them.

3 comments:

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

Love the way it starts out with the phone call from "Dickie."

Maybe I can find these to listen to on my Ipod.

Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder

Martin Edwards said...

I've never listened to a book on my ipod, Elizabeth. (And I've never worked out how to download videos from Youtube on to it, either, unfortunately). Is it a good way to enjoy a book?

Elizabeth Spann Craig said...

It can be. The only problem I have is in finding my place again when I start and stop. There's probably an easier way of marking one's place that I just don't know about.

We're able, now, to download books from the library onto our Ipods and MP3 players. I do like listening to books when I'm doing housework and other boring chores.