After Dark, My Sweet by
Jim Thompson
pbk out May 04
(Orion)
at £6.99
Jim Thompson's characters are doomed losers. This celebrated pulp thriller, brought
to a new audience courtesy of Orion's splendid Crime Masterworks series, features
three of his most memorable creations. Fay Anderson's charms are compromised by
her alcoholism. Affable former cop 'Uncle Bud' is a dangerous criminal. And the
narrator, Bill 'Kid' Collins, is an ex-fighter whose mental instability Uncle Bud and
Fay seek to exploit as they plot the kidnapping of a young boy from a wealthy family.
Thompson was a skilled writer who deserves to be remembered and his reputation has
risen rapidly in the years since his death in 1977. This book is, however, in some
respects a flawed work. For instance, on the second page Thompson tells us (by
quoting the Kid's medical classification card) about his narrator's mental problems,
when a more considered and satisfying approach would have been to let events reveal
the truth more gradually. But the flaws perhaps come from rushing to meet deadlines,
rather than from lack of narrative skill. Over the course of the book, Thompson
portrays his people with light and shade and the ending is one that will linger in many
readers' memories.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
After Dark, My Sweet by
Jim Thompson
