"The Talented Mr. Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith

Tom Ripley is 25 years old. He is poor and lives a frugal and dishonest life in New York City. Out of the blue a rich businessman in his sixties called Herbert Greenleaf asks Tom to go to Italy to persuade his son Richard, "Dickie", 25, to come home. Dickie's mother, Emily, is dying of leukaemia. Mr. Greenleaf mistakenly believes Tom went to Princeton with Dickie.

Tom goes to Italy and makes friends with Dickie, who is living in Mongibello, a small town south of Naples, where he fishes and paints not very good pictures. The only other American in the town is Marge Sherwood. Marge is writing a book.

The friendship between Tom and Dickie soon cools. Tom kills Dickie while they are out in a small boat. He assumes Dickie's identity, living off his trust fund income. One day a mutual friend of theirs called Freddie Miles finds Tom living in Dickie's Rome flat under Dickie's name. When he gets suspicious, Tom kills him, too.

Meanwhile Marge, who is in love with Dickie, cannot understand why he has suddenly abandoned her and his former home in Mongibello. Tom decides to abandon his double life because suspicions about Dickie's involvement in Freddie Miles' death are spread by the newspapers. Tom forges a will in Dickie's name leaving him all Dickie's money. Marge and Mr. Greenleaf accept the idea that Dickie has committed suicide. Tom gets away with murder not once, but twice!

Differences between the book and the film

1. The depiction of Marge Sherwood: in the book she doesn't suspect Tom in the least, but in the film she says to his face, "I know you killed him!"
2. In the book Dickie loves painting, but is not much good (according to Tom), while in the film he is mad about jazz, and is shown to be not just a good saxophonist but also a good singer.
3. Dickie's and Marge's relationship is much more clearly sexual in the film; peeping Tom watches them having sex below deck aboard their yacht. In the book it is not spelt out whether they are lovers or not.
4. In the film Tom's homosexuality is much clearer; he and his partner, the double-barrelled composer Andrew from England, share a cabin on their trip to Greece.
5. In the film the private detective hired by Mr. Herbert Greenleaf tells Tom in confidence that the family knew about Dickie's violent temper. That they had paid money to hush up some GBH Dickie did at Princeton. That the rumours circulating about Dickie's involvement in Freddie Miles' murder strike them as very credible. That they believe Dickie killed Freddie and has gone into hiding. That they don't want any bad publicity (and would appreciate Tom keeping quiet about the whole matter). In the book this violent temper is never mentioned.