Most Popular Books by Jim Thompson

The deputy sheriff of a small Texas town hides a dark secret in this classic 1952 crime novel from the author of The Grifters . "Probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered." —Stanley Kubrick Everyone in the small town of Central City, Texas, loves Lou Ford. A deputy sheriff, Lou''s known to the small-time criminals, the real-estate entrepreneurs, and the rest of his fellow townsmen as the nicest guy around. He might not be the brightest or the most interesting man in town but he''s the kind of officer you''re happy to have keeping your streets safe. But behind the platitudes and glad-handing lurks a monster the likes of which few have seen. A monster with a sickness that urges him to hurt others. A sickness that almost got Lou put away when he was younger, and that is about to surface again. In The Killer Inside Me, Jim Thomspon goes where few novelists have dared to go, giving us a pitch-black glimpse into the mind of a serial killer years before Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, or Bret Easton Ellis''s American Psycho, in a novel that will forever be known as his masterpiece. "A twisted tale, told by a sociopath from his point of view. How twisted? This book leaves Silence of the Lambs in the dust." — Huffington Post

A gambler looking to score big takes his game to Texas and finds himself in a load of trouble in this classic hard-boiled crime novel. To everyone he''s every played dice with, Mitch Corley seems like the luckiest guy around. But in truth, Corley''s fast hands are the only gift fate''s ever given him. He''s never held down a steady job, and when it comes to women, his luck might just be the worst of all — his girlfriend and partner-in-crime Red would double-cross him in a heartbeat if she knew just how short on cash they really were. And if Red ever finds out about the wife Corley neglected to mention, there''s a good chance that Corley might not survive the night. At first, Mitch was sure Texas would be the perfect place for him and Red to run their game — there are players in nearly every back room and side-street across the state and here, the pockets run just a little deeper. But Corley forgot about one thing: Texans don''t forgive easily. And there''s nothing they hate more than a cheater. "Jim Thompson must be ranked in the top bracket. I strongly urge you not to miss one of his books." —Anthony Boucher, New York Times "Thompson''s novels are plaintive and obscene, raucous and bitterly funny." — The Village Voice

In this classic hard-boiled crime novel set in a 1920s West Texas, a convict sprung from jail becomes the unwitting accomplice of the local sheriff. In trouble more often than not, guilty of assault, manslaughter, and honorably discharged from the military by the skin of his teeth, David "Bugs" McKenna can''t seem to help doing the right thing at the wrong time—or the wrong thing, every chance he gets. But when he drifts his way into Ragtown, Texas, things seem to finally be turning around for Bugs. He gets his first job in years as the hotel detective of the landmark Hanlon Hotel. But now that Bugs owes deputy sheriff Lou Ford a favor, things are likely to get ugly, fast—and odds are, it''ll have something to do with the bombshell wife of his Bugs'' new employer . . . In Wild Town, Jim Thompson returns to the characters from The Killer Inside Me that made his reputation, in a virtuoso, multi-character portrait of how one man''s life can take a turn for the worse. "Jim Thompson must be ranked in the top bracket. I strongly urge you not to miss one of his books." —Anthony Boucher, New York Times

The legendary author of The Getaway delivers a suspenseful tale of an ailing woman who awaits her own murder—until she turns the tables on her would-be assassins. Luane Devore''s days are numbered. All her neighbors in the declining seaside resort town of Manduwoc want her dead. Some, like her young husband Ralph and his girlfriend Danny, want the thousands of dollars she keeps hidden under the mattress she spends her days resting on. Others want her to stop her malicious gossip—some of which could ruin lives. Told from multiple perspectives, The Kill-Off tells the story of a woman not long for this earth . . . but who will finally take matters into her own hands. This classic crime novel from Jim Thompson, one of the masters of the genre, was the basis of Maggie Greenwald''s critically acclaimed film of the same name.

The classic crime novel about a kidnapping scheme gone wrong from America''s "Dimestore Dostoevsky," the basis for the noir film of the same name (Geoffrey O''Brien, poet, critic author, former editor and chief, Library of America). William "Kid" Collins was once a respected boxer. Now he''s a drifter, on the run after escaping from a mental institution. One afternoon he meets Fay, a beautiful young widow. She is smart and decent—at least when she''s sober. Soon Collins finds himself involved in a kidnapping scheme that goes drastically wrong almost before it even begins. Because the kid they''ve picked up isn''t like other kids: he''s diabetic and without insulin, he''ll die. Not the safest situation for Collins, a man for whom stress and violence have long gone hand-in-hand. After Dark, My Sweet once again displays Jim Thompson as the undisputed master of American noir. The basis of James Foley''s critically acclaimed film of the same name, with the sweep of an epic tragedy, Thompson''s classic limns the dangerous territory of honest people all-too-easily sucked into wickedness, with no way out but down. Praise for Jim Thompson: "The best suspense writer going, bar none." — The New York Times "My favorite crime novelist—often imitated but never duplicated." —Stephen King "If Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich would have joined together in some ungodly union and produced a literary offspring, Jim Thompson would be it . . . His work . . . casts a dazzling light on the human condition." — Washington Post "The master of the American groin-kick novel." — Vanity Fair "The most hard-boiled of all the American writers of crime fiction." — Chicago Tribune

Dr. Peter S. Murphy needs fifteen thousand dollars by the end of the day, or the city of Los Angeles can say goodbye to the El Healtho clinic. A recovery center for the most severe cases of alcoholism in the state -- even if no one ever does quite seem to get dry there -- El Healtho has been the bane of Dr. Murphy''s existence ever since he started running it. But now that its doors are about to close forever, Dr. Murphy finds he''ll do anything to keep it open. Up to and including admitting Humphrey Van Twyne III, a patient with an extremely violent past whose wealthy family has the means to keep El Healtho open for business. Sure, the man isn''t exactly an alcoholic. And yes, what he really needs is to be under the care of the surgeons who performed the lobotomy that''s rendered Van Twyne all but a vegetable. But the money''s good -- until the rag-tag group of ne''er-do-wells at El Healtho begin to wreak havoc with Dr. Murphy''s plans, and suddenly no one day has ever seemed so long. A literary precursor to One Flew Over the Cuckoo''s Nest, The Alcoholics is Thompson like you''ve never read him before, a pitch-black, mad-cap portrait of deviant behavior that is at once darkly comic, humane and harrowing.

Everyone in Kenton Hills knows that short-tempered, tongue-tied Bob Talbert wasn''t the one responsible for the brutal crime that ended Josie Eddleman''s life. Nevermind that he was the last one to see her alive. But in a town filled with the likes of an amoral tabloid reporter known only as The Captain, a district attorney who''ll do anything for a confession, and Bob''s parents, who care as little for Bob as they do for each other, guilt and innocence are little more than a matter of perspective. In a masterfully woven tapestry of multiple points of view, The Criminal explores the nature of guilt and responsibility in a psychological thriller of an entire town under the spell of an act of brutal violence. Jim Thompson unlike you''re ever read him before.

From "best suspense writer going, bar none" a noir novel about an assassin who becomes romantically involved with the women in his next victim''s life ( New York Times). Jake Winroy had no looks, no education, and little else before he''d worked his way to the top of a million-dollar-a-month horse-betting ring. But when the state''s latched onto his game, the feds take a bite and the lawyer fees eat away at the rest, all Jake''s got left is the bottle and a beautiful wife whose every word is ugly. Jake''s to be the top witness in a major case against organized crime. But an enigmatic mafioso known only as The Man has a plan to make dead certain Jake never gets the chance to testify. The Man''s hired Charlie "Little" Bigger, a hit man barely five feet tall, to infiltrate the Winroy residence as a tenant and murder Winroy in cold blood. To Little, it seems like the easiest job on Earth. Until he lays eyes on the beautiful and dangerous Fay and the Winroy''s young housemaid Ruth, a woman as sensual as she is vulnerable. Savage Night is Jim Thompson at his most unpredictable and deeply suspenseful, in a claustrophobic thriller of one man''s fractured mind. Praise for Jim Thompson "Blisteringly imaginative." — Kirkus Reviews "My favorite crime novelist. Often imitated, but never duplicated." —Stephen King "If Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich would have joined together in some ungodly union and produced a literary offspring, Jim Thompson would be it . . . His work . . . casts a dazzling light on the human condition." — Washington Post "The most hard-boiled of all the American writers of crime fiction." — Chicago Tribune

Drawn from Thompson''s extensive vintage magazine fiction and voluminous unpublished writings is an astonishing array of gritty short stories and two recently discovered novellas, This World, Then the Fireworks and The Expensive Sky.

Tommy Carver may be every inch the angry, rebellious young man his teachers and parents accuse him of being. But sometimes, there are reasons for a fury like Tommy''s. Tommy''s relationship with Donna, the daughter of a man he hates almost as much as his own father, has led to more outbursts than anything else in Tommy''s firecracker existence. With her unearthly beauty and a passion that rivals Tommy''s own, he couldn''t help but fall for her. But as everybody knows, the stories of star-crossed lovers never have happy endings--especially not with explosive parties like these. CROPPER''S CABIN is Jim Thompson''s hair-raising thriller of what no writer has known better before or since--the hardscrabble existence of small-town American lives set to blow.

San Diego in the years before World War II. James Dillon is barely scraping by working a menial job in manufacturing, trying to raise a family and support his elderly mother and sister Frankie at the same time. He drinks too hard -- just like his father and nearly everyone in his extended family. With so many people crammed into one home, sometimes there''s so much fighting he can barely stand it. But if James can survive the chaos of everyday life long enough, maybe -- just maybe -- there''s a chance it''ll all get better. Now and on Earth, Jim Thompson''s first novel, draws on personal experience to depict a hardscrabble life in the sun-soaked streets of mid-20th century California. Chronicling the birth of a writer and the plight of the working man, it prefigures the American classics that followed, in a deeply-felt, autobiographical tale that shows a writer just coming into his own.

Roy Dillon is young, good-looking and devastatingly charming. He''s also a completely amoral con man. Lily, his mother, works for the mob. Moira Langtry, Roy''s mistress, is always looking for the main chance, and so is Carol Roberg, the nurse brought in to look after Roy when a bad choice of mark means he has an unfortunate encounter with a baseball bat and a bad case of internal bleeding. Together they make up a perverse quadrangle of love and greed in a coruscating novel of corruption.

A man is drawn into a murder in "one of Jim Thompson''s best. . . . sharp and markedly individual studies in crime and punishment . . . a rattling good story'''' ( New York Times). It was supposed to be only a temporary job—something to pay the bills until Dusty could get his feet back on the ground and raise enough money for medical school. After all, there''s nothing wrong with being a bellboy at a respectable hotel like the Manton—that is, until she came along. Marcia Hillis. The perfect woman. Beautiful. Experienced. Older and wiser. The only woman to ever measure up to that other her—the one whose painful rejection Dusty can''t quite put from his mind. But while Dusty has designs on Marcia, Marcia has an agenda of her own. One that threatens to pull the Manton inside-out, use Dusty up for all he''s worth and leave him reeling and on the run, the whole world at his heels. A richly-imagined crime narrative of the Oedipal and betrayal, A Swell-Looking Babe is Thompson at his very best—a cornerstone in Thompson''s enduring legacy as the Dimestore Dostoyevsky of American fiction. Praise for Jim Thompson: "A blisteringly imaginative crime novelist . . . violent, amoral, terse and fast moving . . . a classic American writer." — Kirkus Reviews "My favorite crime novelist. Often imitated, but never duplicated." —Stephen King

In the rural town of Verdon, Nebraska, in the early days of the 20th century, you can''t go ten feet without running into one of the Fargos. So, Grant Fargo argues to his grandfather Lincoln, it''s perfectly all right that he''s desperately in love with his first cousin, Bella-she''s the only source of intelligent conversation for miles, and in a town like Verdon, it would be hard not to end up with a relative of one kind or another. Before it all plays out, men will be murdered, jailed, tarred and feathered or worse, and while everyone in the Fargo clan would kill for the family deeds, God might just end up with them instead. In Heed the Thunder, one of Thompson''s earlier works, Thompson''s signature style collides with a sweeping picaresque of the American prairie, in a multigenerational saga that''s one part Steinbeck, two parts Dostoyevsky, and all Jim Thompson.

From the beginning, Jim Thompson knew he was going to catch hell no matter what he did. And during a childhood spent at the mercy of a father whose schemes put him on the wrong side of the law as often as the right, and a grandfather who knew the bad parts of town like the back of his hand, young Jim learned sin better than any writer had before. From his rabble-rousing adolescence in the American Midwest, to wasted teenage years in the seedy underbelly of the hotel industry, to Thompson''s chilling encounter with the real-life inspiration of THE KILLER INSIDE ME, BAD BOY offers a fascinating glimpse at the formative years of the man who would become one of the most famous authors of modern American Noir, in the autobiography-as-novel that follows the birth of the legend himself in the signature style Thompson made famous.

As high sheriff of Potts County, Nick Corey spends most of his time eating, sleeping and avoiding trouble. If only people--especially some troublesome pimps, his foul-tempered wife, and his half-witted brother-in-law--would stop pushing him around. Because when Nick is pushed, he begins to kill . . . or to make others do his killing for him!