Where to Start with Patricia Highsmith: The Best First Book for Every Reader
Not sure which Highsmith to read first? This guide matches every type of reader to the right starting point — Ripley, Strangers on a Train, Carol, or her European thrillers.
Patricia Highsmith wrote 22 novels across 45 years. They divide roughly into two categories: the five Ripley novels, which form a loose series, and the standalone psychological thrillers and literary novels that fill out her career. Knowing which to start with depends almost entirely on what kind of reader you are.
The good news is that her work is unusually consistent — there are no bad Highsmith novels, and most readers who pick up one find they want to read all of them. The question is which one first.
If you want to read the Ripley series
Start with: The Talented Mr. Ripley
There is no better place to begin. Tom Ripley — amoral, intelligent, aesthetically refined, and utterly without guilt — is one of the most original characters in twentieth-century fiction, and The Talented Mr. Ripley is where he is at his most seductive and most dangerous. A young American goes to Italy on a commission, kills the man he was sent to find, assumes his identity, and proceeds to build a new life without appearing to lose a night’s sleep over it.
The novel is irresistible: beautifully plotted, set across the Italy of the 1950s (Rome, Naples, Venice, Mongibello), and told with the precision of someone who finds Ripley’s logic entirely comprehensible. If you read it and want more, the complete reading order is here.
If you’d rather skip to the best Ripley: Ripley’s Game (the third novel) is widely considered the finest entry in the series and works as a standalone. Many readers begin there.
If you want a standalone thriller
Start with: Strangers on a Train
Strangers on a Train is Highsmith’s debut and the best single statement of her moral universe: two men meet on a train, one proposes they swap murders, and the innocent man ends up as contaminated by the crime as the guilty one. Alfred Hitchcock filmed it in 1951, and it is a great film — but the novel is darker, stranger, and less reassuring.
If Strangers on a Train is the setup, her career is the elaboration: every subsequent standalone novel is a variation on the same question — what is the relationship between the guilty and the innocent, and how cleanly can they be distinguished?
If you want her psychological best
Start with: Deep Water
Deep Water is Highsmith at her most chilling. Vic Van Allen is the perfect suburban husband who allows his wife to have affairs openly — to prevent her leaving — and who, beneath the courteous surface, is something much more frightening. The novel is a portrait of suburban American life as a performance of normalcy under which violence is structurally required.
If you want a single novel that demonstrates the specific quality of Highsmith’s sensibility — the domesticity, the control, the creeping horror — this is it.
If you want her most literary novel
Start with: Carol
Carol is unlike anything else she wrote. Published in 1952 under a pseudonym, it is a love story — a genuine one, ending happily — between a young department store worker and an older woman navigating a divorce. No murders. No psychological monsters. Just two women in 1950s New York, rendered with Highsmith’s characteristic precision and unusual warmth.
If you have seen the 2015 film with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, the novel is extremely close to it. If you haven’t, it is a perfect entry point for readers who find crime fiction a barrier.
By reader type
| If you like… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Psychological thrillers (Gone Girl, We Need to Talk About Kevin) | The Talented Mr. Ripley |
| Classic crime fiction (Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler) | Strangers on a Train |
| Suburban horror (Revolutionary Road, American Beauty) | Deep Water |
| Literary fiction (Henry James, Ian McEwan) | Carol or Edith’s Diary |
| European settings and travel fiction | The Two Faces of January (Greece) |
| Existential / Camus-like fiction | The Tremor of Forgery (Tunisia) |
What to avoid first
Don’t start with The Tremor of Forgery. It is her most deliberately slow and existential novel — excellent, but requiring familiarity with her characteristic moral territory before its achievements become legible.
Don’t start with Ripley Under Water. It is the final Ripley novel and its rewards are primarily for readers who have followed the series from the beginning.
After the first book
- Loved The Talented Mr. Ripley? Continue with Ripley Under Ground → Ripley’s Game → The Boy Who Followed Ripley → Ripley Under Water
- Loved Strangers on a Train? Try The Blunderer, then Deep Water
- Loved Carol? Try Edith’s Diary — her other female-centred novel
- Want the full picture: See the complete reading order
For the full Patricia Highsmith bibliography, reviews, and biography, visit the Patricia Highsmith author page on Editors Reads.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Talented Mr. Ripley a good first Highsmith?
Yes — it is the best first Highsmith for almost all readers. It introduces Tom Ripley, her greatest character, in a novel that is both a page-turning thriller and a serious study of identity, class, and the psychology of the criminal who feels no guilt.
Can I read Ripley's Game without reading the earlier Ripley books?
Yes. Ripley's Game works as a standalone — it briefly establishes who Ripley is and does not require knowledge of the earlier novels. Many readers cite it as their favourite Highsmith and their entry point into her work.
Is Carol related to her other books?
No — Carol is completely standalone and very different from her thrillers. It is a love story, not a crime novel, and the only one of her books to end happily. If you have seen the 2015 film with Cate Blanchett, the novel is extremely close to it.
