The Criminal [Paperback]

Jim Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1987

A teenage girl is raped and murdered. A father turns his back on his son. A vicious press lord turns justice into a carnival. A terrified boy is railroaded. In the twisted world of Jim Thompson, everyone is guilty, and the worst crimes are unpunishable.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A teenage girl is raped and murdered. A father turns his back on his son. A vicious press lord turns justice into a carnival. A terrified boy is railroaded. In the twisted world of Jim Thompson, everyone is guilty, and the worst crimes are unpunishable. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

(1906 - 1977) James Meyers Thompson was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He began writing fiction at a very young age, selling his first story to True Detective when he was only fourteen. Thompson eventually wrote twenty-nine novels, all but three of which were published as paperback originals. Thompson also wrote two screenplays (for the Stanley Kubrick films “The Killing” and “Paths of Glory”). An outstanding crime writer, the world of his fiction is rife with violence and corruption. In examining the underbelly of human experience and American society in particular, Thompson’s work at its best is both philosophical and experimental. Several of his novels have been filmed by American and French directors, resulting in classic noir including The Killer Inside Me (1952), After Dark My Sweet (1955), and The Grifters (1963). --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 130 pages
• Publisher: Creative Arts Book Company (February 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887390188
• ISBN-13: 978-0887390180
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,709,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of his best for sure, October 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Criminal (Paperback)

This is a short one but God, it's a masterpiece. Your sympathy and your hate jumps from character to character as the story goes. I find it one of Thompsons more sensitive books in contrast to some of his more hate-filled work. There are some pretty evil persons in this one too though, and you start to question who's to blame for the tragedy in the novel. You don't have to be a crimelover to read and get drawn into this Thompson story.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem, December 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Criminal (Paperback)

I'm a big Jim Thompson fan, and I think this is his very best. A crime occurs, but guilt or innocence quickly loses focus - the suspect becomes a pawn, and each chapter focuses on a different figure (the D.A., the newspaper editor, the suspect's family, etc.) and how they deal with the situation. Each chapter is written in the first person, and has a number of vignettes that, to me, were truly vivid. Thompson's more 'extreme' novels, like The Getaway, The Killer Inside Me, or Pop. 1280, are better-known, but I think the quiet power of this book eclipses them all.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thompson at his best, June 20, 2001

By 

James G. Greenhill "Jim Greenhill" (Durango, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Criminal (Paperback)

What a refreshing book, particularly the use of different narrators & the (successful) heavy reliance on dialog to propel the story. I was very concerned Thompson's books would all be alike after I read & loved "The Killer Inside Me" ... & they're not at all ... this is a completely different style from that or from, say, "South of Heaven" or "Now And On Earth." I've read one other book that used this approach, John Burnham Schwartz's much more recent & also excellent "Reservation Road" & it works very well for both writers. Thompson is wonderfully controlled with it, keeping things short & tight. I love how many people assume young Bob Talbert is innocent & railroaded ... in fact, Thompson leaves the question of his innocence or guilt entirely with the reader & it's beautifully ambiguous, especially if the reader is familiar with the sociopathic personality which, without ever saying it, Thompson gives Talbert plenty of room to be. Thompson was ahead of his time understanding criminals & perhaps much of it was intuitive, from what he knew about himself. Whatever his personal weaknesses he was very brave in showing people's inherent capacity for evil, without apologizing for it. It's in Thompson's ability to see the universal capacity for evil that his humanity lies.