Six of the best books on deception

Walter Kirn is the author of Thumbsucker and Up in the Air, both made into major films, and 2014's Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade.

One of his six favorite books on deception, as shared with The Week magazine:

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

Tom Ripley wants to be someone he's not, and he solves the problem with devilish elegance, killing his idol and stealing his identity. The novel then becomes a farce as Ripley relies on ever-fancier footwork to keep his creepy charade from falling apart. Since we can't help but root for him, we feel like creeps as well.

Read about another entry on the list.

The Talented Mr Ripley is on stephen May's top ten list of impostors in fiction, Simon Mason's top ten list of chilling fictional crimes, 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