The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Killer Inside Me
Book Review: Explosive
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm not sure what else I can add to what has been written about this Thompson novel . It is so good you feel almost compelled to say yes, I too have read this run-away explosive novel. Lou Ford is a sheriff who plays the dunce yet is actually a very educated and intelligent man who also just happens to be a psychopath waiting to go off like a roman candle. After events light his fuse this novel starts to run screaming down the street and begins to laugh so hard it can't stop and no that is not the reader laughing. This story is written in the classic noir pulp style, but it transcends the genre and is hard to neatly label. Don't stop with this one, Thompson has written many great reads.Book Review: Good Short Read
Summary: 4 Stars
Pretty good Psych read without being gratuitously gory. More of a warped mind kind of drama. Not so much blood & guts.Book Review: Good book
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a quick-paced, relatively short novel that purportedly amounts to "probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered" (quote by Stanley Kubrick on front cover). While I think this is a great overstatement, I did find the book very engaging and entertaining. I don't think it conveyed a terribly nuanced or deep evocation of sociopathic thinking, and I found parts of the book to be a bit confusing and obscure in their use of indirect language. But it is a solid, classic choice that maintains its suspense and that successfully evokes a different time, place, and culture.Book Review: Good enough to buy twice?
Summary: 4 Stars
It was such a good book. I got about half way through and then one of my dirt bag coworkers either stole it or "accidentally" threw it in the garbage so I had nothing to read on my way home. The suspense was killing me as it was a critical point in the story. Eventually I got over it and I still haven't finished the book yet... So I guess it's good but not good enough to buy twice.Book Review: Great Psychological Intrigue
Summary: 5 Stars
I decided to read a Jim Thompson novel because of Amazon[.com] recommendations. I can honestly say that Amazon[.com] did a good job. What a great jaunt into the amazingly Normal thought processes of a killer's mind. I enjoyed this book immensly, but I think it has to be approached with a certain attitude. First and foremost, this book is noir. It's not the normal Stephen King-ish kind of thriller that most pop-culture oriented readers expect of a book with the likes of "The Killer Inside Me" as it's title. Perhaps my background helps: My parents are both clinical psychologists. I knew what sociopaths and paranoid schizophrenics were before I could write. The brilliance of this book is the simplicity of it. The plot revolves around the "sickness" of Lou Ford, but it's also about a look at a seemingly normal life. Schizophrenics tend to seem normal, and that is where Jim Thompson succeeds. Lou Ford has to "dumb himself down" to maintain a sense of power and superiority over his acquaintances and colleagues. I, personally, loved his confrontation of the doctor that was sent to his house -- he thrives on feeding him book knowledge when he is supposed to be a humble sherriff. Could Lou Ford have been a Hannibal Lector? I think he certainly could have been and was definitely as disturbing a character in his own right. The difference between the characters is that Lou Ford could be your neighbor, your minister, your lover, or your best friend--and you would never know the deprivation inside his mind. To summarize: "The Killer Inside Me" is a wonderful book because of it's noir nature of suspense and it's utter realism to the true world of a killer. I can't wait to read another Jim Thompson book.