The Last Word

It’s important to give thanks this month for family, camaraderie, the happiness of being together, and the books that sustain as much as any hearty Thanksgiving dinner. As I look back over years, I can always pick out a number of novels suitable as the weather turns colder and my focus turns inward. Most of us want to relax before the holiday whirl of travel, parties, and family gettogethers is underway. The triumvirate I wrote about below in November 2017 always makes me happy and satisfied upon a re-read. The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, The Likeness by Tana French, and Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie are the perfect accompaniament to a hot cup of tea by the fire. These classic suspense novels will give you a respite from hectic reality and take you on a dream trip to Europe as cold rain blows against your windowpanes.

In The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith is a master of psychological suspense. Her clipped, matter-of-fact sentences present one of the most interesting anti-heroes of twentieth-century suspense: Tom Ripley, a small-time crook who dabbles in mail fraud while moving from one shabby apartment to another in New York City. The father of a casual friend, Dickie Greenleaf, offers him a trip to Italy if he will visit Dickie there and persuade him to give up his dilettantish pursuit of becoming an artist to return home and join the family business. Tom, notable only for his lack of notability, takes on this voyage from its inception as a method for metamorphosis. He lies skillfully and pathologically, making up stories about his origins. In the process, he gradually inserts himself into the life of careless, affluent Dickie and his resentful friend, Marge, who jealously guards against Tom’s intrusion into their idyllic Italian life.

Through intertwining himself in Dickie’s life, Tom creates a new persona that he almost believes to be true. Resourceful and completely without scruples, he casts a chilly enchantment on the reader as he pulls off a masterful re-invention of himself that makes us root for him despite his ruthlessness. Rarely have I found myself so drawn in to a character’s psychological journey in a suspense

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

— J.R.R. TOLKIEN