Jim Thompson: C/D S+D

The Golden Gizmo is pretty bad.
I don't think I can finish it.

I've had Killer Inside Me sitting on a shelf for a year or so, but after reading his story "This World, Then the Fireworks" in the Black Lizard Anthology of Crime Fiction I'm going to have to delve into this guy. It was one they pulled out of his archives posthumously, but man, the writing really stands out among the kinda standard noir/detective/crime stuff.

But Harlan Ellison's up next and his story starts with "At twenty-five minutes past midnight on 51st Street, the wind-chill factor was so sharp it could carve you a new asshole" so that's promising.

Killer Inside Me is great!

Cool! I'm looking forward to it.

"This World, Then the Fireworks"

Need to read this; there was a movie of it that doesn't look too good.

So if you haven't read Cropper's Cabin or the Alcoholics (or Recoil or Heed The Thunder or either of the two Thompson "bios") from that period don't lose any sleep about it...

I read South of Heaven, which involves a down on his luck guy working to clear a path for a new oil pipeline in Texas (dynamite is involved) and some crimes and disreputable behavior occur along the way. I remember liking it, thinking it was a lone star style “wages of fear” type story, but I may be misremembering. Definitely mines the same desperate men/dangerous work vibe.

Did he write any of the episodes of ironsides or just the novelisation.
Would be interesting to see if any of it was recognisable as him if he wrote episodes.

The hotel memoir thing was quite good too.

Dunno. Wish I had held onto my copy of the bio, Savage Art, by Robert Polito.

So, in the last ten years or so, I think I've read most of the Thompson that's available.

Top five in no order:
-Savage Night
-The Getaway
-Pop. 1280
-After Dark, My Sweet
-The Grifters (I really came around on this one; i see upthread i thought it was disorganized or disjointed. i disagree with myself now.)

A lot of the rest bleed into each other in my mind.. A Hell Of A Woman, A Swell Looking Babe, The Kill Off... I should re-read.

Ken L, I think I have a copy of that bio still; I'll check and get back to you. I'll be back in Brooklyn tomorrow night.

I remember the end of A Hell Of A Woman being straight-up horrific. I read it something like 30 years ago, though.

Early in the pandemic, there was a big sale on epubs of Thompson's novels for $1.99 so I picked up a bunch. I hadn't read anything by him since the Black Lizard editions were new and re-reading them now, nearly 40 years later, I'm enjoyed them a heck of a lot more.

For me, Pop. 1280 is the standout by far. Funny, really funny, and the closest thing I've read that can be legit described as Texan Grand Guignol. Following that, big recommendations for The Killer Inside Me, The Nothing Man, The Getaway, Wild Town, and South Of Heaven. I'd love to own the Raymond Pettibone illustrated version of South Of Heaven, but I'm not paying $450 for it.