The Book

New York City. Tom Ripley, 23 year old man without job, friends, family. Lives as a layer and dishonest guy. He has great ambitious but no opportunity...until he meets Mr. Greenleaf, a desperate older man, who mistook Tom with friend of his son Dickie. Greenleaf hires Ripley to go to Italy and persuade his son Dickie to come back to US. That was like a dream come true. Tom goes to Italy, to small village called Mongibello and there meets Dickie-man who was a perfection of human being and lifestyle. Young Greenleaf had his own boat and beautiful house. He didn't care about anything, only living his live in the way he wanted to. He also had a very close friend, an American girl- Marge Sherwood, who loved him in a platonic way.

From the very begin of living in Italy Tom knew that neither he nor Dickie come back.
Tom as only one American (except Marge) in the village very quickly won Dickie's heart. They started to spent together whole hours and even days. They were inseparable. But there was something what made Tom angry-Marge. She didn’t trust Toms as much as Dickie did. She was also very reserved and suspicious of Ripley.

Over time Tom started to be for Dickie somebody, who stopped being attractive and interesting. Dickie was tired of him and wanted to finish that relationship.

Tom didn’t want to loose what he had and decided to kill Richard. They were in San Remo on a short holiday. Men hired a small boat and Tom murdered Dickie on board with cold-blood. Next he dumped friend’s boy into the water and scuttles the boat.

It was a begin of Tom’s new life, life as Dickie Greenleaf. Ripley assumed friend’s identity and started living as he always desire. He tricked Marge, that real Dickie is still alive, and he only wanted to be alone, without her and he decided to move to Rome.

During living as Dickie Greenleaf Tom tried to avoid contacts with Dickie’s former friends. But unfortunately for Tom, one of them, Freddie Miles found him. Freddie visited Ripley at ‘Dickie’s’ apartment in Rome but he started to suspicious that something is wrong. Then Tom felt dangerous and he murdered Miles. Now he started a game with Italian police, a game which one he won of course. But before it happened Tom had to fool many people, including Marge, Herbert Greenleaf, Italian police and American private detective. He also double-crossed everyone about Dickie’s last will, in which ‘Dickie’ left him everything.

At the end of the book Tom traveled to Greece as a young, wealth man, who can do whatever he wants.

My funny Valentine-by Matt Damon as Tom Ripley in the movie