RIPLEY'S GAME

When first and last met Ripley Underground (1970) could not be left there — with his French wife Heloise and all their gracious living (bettered by the man he last killed) and his truly inventive and agile mind without a scruple in it, Tom Ripley had to survive. This time he helps out an old fence and gambler who wants a couple of "simple murders" done; what could be simpler than finding the perfect murderer — a man who is already doomed (leukemia) and giving him an assist with the twist of a garrote on a train? Not quite as outrageously complicated as the first but still the ultimate in elegant, amused, sophisticated sangfroid.