He named his top ten chilling fictional crimes for the Guardian, including:The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia HighsmithRead about the other entries on the list.
Logical crime. Tom Ripley is holidaying with Dickie Greenleaf far from their American homes. Tom is poor. Dickie is rich. Why not kill Dickie and assume his identity? Why not kill again to protect your secret? And why not get away with it? Why not keep getting away with it? Most stories about crime have in-built systems of punishment, or at least disapproval. This one doesn't.
The Talented Mr Ripley is on Melissa Albert's list of eight books to change a villain, Koren Zailckas's list of eleven of literature's more evil characters, Alex Berenson's five best list of books about Americans abroad John Mullan's list of ten of the best examples of rowing in literature, Tana French's top ten maverick mysteries list, the Guardian's list of the 50 best summer reads ever, the Telegraph's ultimate reading list, and Francesca Simon's top ten list of antiheroes.
--Marshal Zeringue
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