Ripley

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.”