The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Killer Inside Me
Book Review: A nightmarishly wonderful experience
Summary: 5 Stars
Imagine the music of Morphine only in print, with a hint of the brown acid they warned of at Woodstock. An insane sheriff on a homicidal spree explained in the first person. If you like noir you'll love this. It gets no better than a Jim Thompson Novel. To explain more would be criminal.Book Review: A noir classic that shouldn't be passed up!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Jim Thompson is one of America's most famous, and prolific noir writers. I have only in the past year discovered his novels, and they were a great find. "The Killer Inside Me" is considered his all time best novel, and having read it I can see why. The story of Lou Ford, a small town Deputy Sheriff, whose seemingly benign appearance, conceals from view, the murderous psychopath lurking within the mind of Ford, ready to explode at a moments notice. What makes this novel so fascinating is that is written in the first person narative, with Ford telling the story. The reader enters the mind of a psychopath, seeing the world through his eyes. The reader will not want to put this novel down. My only criticism is that the narrator describes his own death, and to a certain exten this breaks the mood of the novel. Nevertheless I do recommend this novel to those who enjoy the noir genre. For a more recent work in this narrative style, which I feel holds together better than Thompson's book, I also recommend James Ellroy's "Killer On The Road". Read "The Killer Inside Me" first, then Ellroy's work, it makes a great comparison for plot, style, and how noir has changed over the decades.Book Review: An incredible character study of a psychopathic misanthrope.
Summary: 4 Stars
When I started reading this book, I wondered what the buzz was about. When we first meet the main character he seems like your normal small town sheriff. Before you know it, you're in for quite a ride. The sheriff isn't quite what he seemed to be, in fact, he's one of the most sadistic, misanthropic characters it was ever my pleasure to meet. A great readBook Review: An oldie but goodie
Summary: 5 Stars
It's sometime hard to believe that this book was written decades ago; it seems so up to date. The plot is timeless, and the setting could be anywhere in the country or in any decade for the last 50 years or so.
The basic plot involves a 29 year old deputy sheriff in Texas who harbors a secret: he has a compulsion for killing, but has been able to keep it under control for many years. It appears from the writing that, when he was young, something happened with his father's housekeeper that initiated this compulsion, but he is considered by his fellow townsmen a bit of a dimwit, a perception he has worked very diligently to perfect.
Everything begins to fall apart for him when he is asked by his boss to do something about a prostitute who lives in the area. When he meets her all of his prior restraints seem to disappear, and upon that hangs the plot. I won't go into it further because anything more would spoil this excellent book for subsequent readers. All I will say is that there is a fine depiction of a mind descending slowly but surely into madness, leaving a trail of victims in its wake. Read the book; I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
Book Review: At once the most frightening and exhilarating book I've read
Summary: 5 Stars
I wandered into the Mysterious Bookstore in Manhattan looking to find something different. The lay of the store told me that this would be the case. I had been reading up on serial killers, both real and imagined, on and off for some time. I asked the clerk if he could point me in the direction of some sort of crime novel. I explained what I was interested in and he said that I might like hard-boiled detective fiction. He showed me Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and then said that the best of all of them was this guy, Jim Thompson. He showed me "The Killer Inside Me," and "The Gifters." I bought "The Grifters" as I was familiar with the title from the film, which I still haven't seen. I was hooked. I went back later and bought "The Killer Inside Me" which the clerk had claimed was Jim Thompon's best book. I read it cover to cover and thought that indeed it must be his best book. It was the best book I had read yet about the dissolute. I felt drawn to this charater of Lou Ford. I felt for all his problems, he is a sort of hero for all of us little people who try and try and don't ever seem to get a break. The phrase, "All of us that started the game with a crooked cue, that wanted so much and got so little,that meant so good and did so bad." summed it up for me. He makes his bad guy the hero by bringing him to this level. The kind of guy who, in a perfect world, might be great, or at the vey least good, but in this world is left doing time in the gutter indefinitely. An open letter to anyone considering this, or any other Jim Thompson novel. Read it. I consider myself fortunate that I wandered into the Mysterious Bookstore. Jim Thompson is now my favorite writer. My one regret about all of this is that when I am done reading all his novels, as I will soon be, there will be no more new books. I have comfort that I can return to the stories I've read. But that adventure of meeting Lou Ford and all Jim Thompson's other creations for the first time will be gone. Ah, such is life.