In The Killer Inside Me, America's "Dimestore Dostoevsky" Jim Thompson goes where few novelists have dared to go, giving us a pitch-black glimpse into the mind of the American serial killer years before Charles Manson and Brett Easton Ellis's American Psycho, in the novel that will forever be known as the master performance of one of the greatest crime novelists of all time.

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 all of his coworkers - the low-lifes, the big-timers, and everyone in-between - as the nicest guy around. He may not be the brightest or the most interesting man in town, but nevertheless, he's the kind of officer you're happy to have keeping your streets safe. The sort of man you might even wish your daughter would end up with someday.

But behind the platitudes and glad-handing lurks a monster the likes of which few have seen. An urge that has already claimed multiple lives, and cost Lou his brother Mike, a self-sacrificing construction worker fell to his death on the job in what was anything but an accident. A murder that Lou is determined to avenge - and if innocent people have to die in the process, well, that's perfectly all right with him.

Listening Length

7 hours and 16 minutes
Author

Jim Thompson
Narrator

Kevin T. Collins
Audible release date

Nov. 1 2011
Language

English
Publisher

Hachette Audio
ASIN

B071JCWFNX
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	7 hours and 16 minutes
Author	Jim Thompson
Narrator	Kevin T. Collins
Audible.ca Release Date	November 01 2011
Publisher	Hachette Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B071JCWFNX
Best Sellers Rank	#71,364 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #250 in Hard-Boiled Mysteries #2,250 in Hard-Boiled Mystery (Books) #2,437 in Crime Fiction

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

813 global ratings

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4 star		29%
3 star		16%
2 star		5%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Linda

Lou

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 8, 2021

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I enjoyed this one. I don't know how to describe my feelings upon reading the novel. I liked it so much I bought two more of his books.

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Aspire

Pretty tame by today's standards but still a good read.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 5, 2018

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Good read, but being that it was written in the 50's, it wasn't as shocking as everyone would have you believe, and does feel a wee bit dated.
No doubt it would have blown peoples minds in the 50's, though!! Can't think of reading a novel from the 50's that was this gritty and violent. That alone deserves credit.
Oh, I skipped it, but apparently Stephen Kings foreword has spoilers in it, Skip it until you're done the book.

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derek hennig

Curt dialouge - It did not bow my mind like Mr. King made out

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 6, 2015

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Interesting take on the serial killer, especially coming from the 50s. Curt dialouge - It did not bow my mind like Mr. King made out.

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Teresa

Three Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 29, 2014

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Not wildiy entertaining but had to read to the end/

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robin friedman

A Psychotic Killer Tells His Story

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 20, 2020

Jim Thompson's short 1952 novel "The Killer inside of Me" offers a disturbing portrayal from the inside of the mind of a psychopathic killer, Lou Ford, 29, who narrates his story in the first person. Ford is a deputy sheriff in a west Texas town called Central City in the 1950's. Ford's mother had died when the boy was young, and he was raised by his physician father and a housekeeper. After the mother's death, when Lou was four, his father adopted a six year old orphan, Mike. The story begins six years after Mike had been killed in a covered-up murder.

The novel begins as Lou investigates, abuses, and falls in love with Joyce, a prostitute. Lou becomes involved in a contorted blackmail and double-cross under which he and Joyce are to receive $10,000 from a wealthy construction magnate, Conway, whose profligate son has fallen in love with Joyce and plans to elope with her. Lou has a motive for killing young Conway as his father had years before arranged for Mike's murder. Lou kills Conway and Joyce as well and attempts to cover his tracks. The novel describes his efforts, further killings, and growing mental deterioration. The book focuses more on Lou's character than on the taut suspense resulting from the investigation of the murders.

Thompson's novel delves into Lou's tormented, vicious, yet strangely sympathetic character. The residents of Central City regard him as "that dull good-natured guy who couldn't do anything bad if he tried." Lou speaks slowly, smiles a great deal, uses many cliches, and appears to be well-liked. He has a childhood sweetheart, Amy, whom, apparently he plans to marry. Lou's outward demeanor covers a high intelligence not to speak of murderous impulses. Lou does have a compassionate side as well as he befriends a young man, Johnny Pappas, who, as are many adolescents has a propensity for trouble. He shows a sense of identification with people who, as Lou did himself,"started the game with a crooked cue." This sympathy does not stop Lou from acts of great brutality.

The graphic detail, and forethought, of Lou's crimes belies his exterior image. Lou's character is developed through reflections on his boyhood. The housekeeper had sexually abused the child, and Lou developed a lifelong anger towards women which he calls "the sickness". His adopted brother Mike had served a term in the reformatory after taking the blame for sexual abuse of a young girl that Lou had perpetuated. Thompson develops Lou's psychopathic character skillfully and convincingly from Lou's early sexual experiences.

Lou's character is developed through his biting, pithy observations of people and places. In observing what he sees as mismatched couples,Lou observes: I've loafed around the streets sometimes, leaned against a store front with my hat pushed back and one boot hooked back aroun the other -- hell,you've probably seen me if you've ever been out this way -- I've stood like that, looking nice and friendly and stupid, like I wouldn't p.. if my pants were on fire. And all of the time I'm laughing myself sick inside. Just watching the people."

Lou is convinced, with reason, that his guilt is strongly suspected from the beginning. His self-understanding increases even as his mind deteriorates. The final sections of the book show a highly demented person, replete with illusions, feelings of guilt, and claustrophobia.

"The Killer Inside Me" is a internalized work that captures a psychotic soul. The book formed the basis for films in 1976 and 2010. The author, Jim Thompson (1906-1977), was a prolific author of noir novels and of screenplays. This book is his masterpiece. It is available in this paperback edition or in the Library of America's compilation Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America) (Vol 2) of five noir novels from the 1950's. This is an excellent novel, irrespective of genre.

Robin Friedman

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K. Calen

Great Psychological Intrigue

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 9, 2003

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.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

comm88

"It's life, Jim, but not as we know it!!"

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 10, 2016

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Gritty, it's true and disturbing in its psychomania. It's a story about a murderer gone mad from the wrong side of the law. Trouble is ... it don't add up. There is "evidence" all the way through the trail that would lead a lawman with even half a brain to single out the culprit and nail him - from the very first killing. How do you beat someone to death in an apparent frenzy yet have no blood marks on your gloved fists or blood spatter on your shirt? "Marked bills" are traded elsewhere, but there is no mention of a recovery, or of anyone spotting this anomaly. And the ending, I'm afraid, borders on farce. Can't fault the writing. Just didn't much care for the story and its brazen brutality. Surely the idea of a revenge killer is to get away with it and plan meticulously to outlive what they've done? Not to bumble haphazardly to and from each self-inflicted disaster. Sorry Mr Springsteen, this is not a writer I'd want to read over again. Once is quite enough for me.

3 people found this helpful

Emile Zola reader

A truly scary psychopath - loved it.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 21, 2011

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I raced through this book - it is only 220 pages long - because it was action-packed from start to finish and had me gripped wondering what on earth could happen next. The story revolves around Lou Ford who is a young Deputy Sheriff of a small close-knit community in Texas. Lou has old-fashioned Texan values, he believes women should always be treated with respect, he always has time for a friendly word with the good citizens of Central City and he takes time out to offer good advice to a young hoodlum in the making.

Lou's boss, Sheriff Bob Maples, thinks the world of young Lou but questions his lack of ambition and his apparent contentment in living in a boring, one-horse town where nothing much happens. Then things do start to happen, the local big-shot's son is found dead at the side of the local hooker who has been horribly battered beyond recognition.

It's difficult to say much more about the plot without risking a spoiler but suffice to say this is an intelligent novel, the language is rich and colloquial and the reasoning behind the murderer's motives is so chilling yet logical at the same time that I found myself lulled into a kind of calm which added to the shock when the same tone is used to describe a very violent murder in a very graphic way. Excellent stuff.

This is my first Jim Thompson book but he has written dozens of well known novels and The Getaway,The Grifters and this one, The Killer Inside Me, have been made into films.

If you don't mind graphic violence on paper this is an excellent book.

2 people found this helpful

mcalladine

the killer got inside me!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 6, 2010

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this was a great book really engaging and like other crime noverls from the killers perspective the empathy and drama that you feel revolves around wanting the killer, in this case lou, to get away with it. at times the story was so twisted and it was just written as the character would think it and i found it hard to follow, things are not decribed as such but though about, if that makes sense to anyone then this book is great. i did buy this as i thought that the film recently sounded interesting (i have a secretly wrong lust for dexter and the books in that series)and i love stuff about dark evil people but this books portrays the killings as necessary and justified more than just to fulfil a craving or an urge as others do so it is more about him killing out of necessity than desire. now i really want to see the film as little is described in the book and it is quite hard to clear the events on your mind if you are not good at inventing your own images. anyway this was a really good story and theme but maybe it was because it was so old (1952- before my parents were born!!!) that i found t hard to understand or maybe im just too lazy to think too hard about it but nevertheless i really enjoyed it and would recommend to anyone who enjoys mysteries and thrillers.

One person found this helpful

Warren Stalley

Sky Rocket To Hell

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 7, 2013

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I won't repeat the storyline of this novel as enough reviews have already covered that. Instead I'll cut to the chase and tell you this is another great Jim Thompson crime novel, probably his best. Each chapter adds to the story, deepens the impact and builds toward the powerful conclusion. With deceptive ease he creates a fragile world of one man's madness where all it takes is one false move and the whole thing slowly slides into violence and chaos. After reading The Getaway, The Grifters and After Dark, My Sweet I thought I'd seen the best of Jim Thompson but this is a storming book by one of the masters of crime. Enjoy.

red_monkey

Excellent pulp noir.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 24, 2001

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The sorry tale of Lou Ford; a small town sherriff with a penchant for rough sex and killing. To everyone around him, he's a likeable, hick lawman.
An intensely inteligent man who was destined for bad things from childhood, Lou is affected by the "sickness".
A real good read for fans of pulp, noir and suspense thrillers. The reader can't help but empathise with the main character who so desperately wants to be normal but is trapped by circumstance (real and imaginary) in a downward spiral of ever decreasing circles.

One person found this helpful

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