Order of Ripley Books
The Ripley series (or “the Ripliad”) is a series of psychological thriller/suspense/crime fiction novels by American novelist Patricia Highsmith. The title character, Tom Ripley, became an orphan when he was five years old. He was then raised by his aunt in Boston, who mocked him growing up. When he was a teenager, he made an attempt to run away from his aunt to New York City, where he wound up once he reached adulthood. While the character has relationships with men, his sexuality is left ambiguous. Highsmith referred to Tom Ripley as a “suave, agreeable and utterly amoral” con artist and serial killer who always evades justice, while Roger Ebert called described him as “charming, literate, and a monster.”
Patricia Highsmith began her Tom Ripley series in 1955 with the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. That novel was adapted to film by Anthony Minghella in 1999, starring Matt Damon, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. The series lasted five books, concluding in 1991 with Ripley Under Water. Below is a list of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley books in order of when they were originally published (which is the same as their chronological order):
Publication Order of Ripley Books
The Talented Mr. Ripley | (1955) | |
Ripley Under Ground | (1970) | |
Ripley’s Game | (1974) | |
The Boy Who Followed Ripley | (1980) | |
Ripley Under Water | (1991) |