The Boy Who Followed Ripley, my fourth Ripley book, is the story of a boy who has killed his father and seeks out Ripley to confess and try to ease his burden of guilt. Ripley believes he has managed to calm the sixteen-year-old, helping him come to terms with the crime he committed in a few moments of rage. This raises the question of morality or the lack thereof: in our world of angry young men and hired killers, who are not distinguishable from the angry men and hired killers of pre-Christian centuries: does it matter to anyone who kills and who is killed? Patricia Highsmith.