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jtellis's review against another edition
5.0
One of Thompson's very best. Last read this in 2008-ish and it's as gripping as I remembered.
brandonpytel's review against another edition
4.0
Picked this short read up for my trip to San Antonio. Figured I’d get a good mix of isolated, sun-drenched, dusty plains before embarking on those same plains myself. In The Killer Inside Me, we meet Lou Ford, a pretty boring deputy sheriff who hides a sinister secret inside him: the sickness.
Throughout the book, that sickness threatens to emerge again, unless tampered down somehow, usually through violent means: “She’d made the old fire burn again. She even showed me how to square with Conway.”
Lou Ford’s past, as we get a little more of it bit by bit, haunts him, and he does his best to hide it. That past keeps surfacing as something to do with his brother, Mike, who took the blame for some unforgivable deed that Lou did as a child. As a result, Mike is eventually killed by Conway, set up as an accident.
The book then is a minor revenge plot to get back at Conway — I say minor, because though that’s the device to keep the narrative moving, it really is about Ford’s sociopathic tendencies and his internal struggle to keep those tendencies in check. But those thoughts lead him to dark places: “I’d get rid of her, and it would all be over for all time.”
Easily the most terrifying scenes, and what makes this a classic crime noir thriller, are Lou Ford’s detachment from his carefully planned murders. He kills with the precision of an assassin, completely separated from his victims, no matter how close he was with them: His lover, his girlfriend, a town bum, Conway’s son — the bodies start piling up.
It is the first murder that really sets the book in motion though, that of a local prostitute who Lou’s taken as a lover, and one of her clients who is in love with her. Yet it doesn't go as planned, and the consequences are lurking in the shadows throughout the book: “I’d done everything I could to get rid of a couple of undesirable citizens in a neat no-kickbacks way. And here one of ‘em was still alive.”
Lou Ford is looking for peace, but looks for it in all the wrong places. He wishes to escape the town, yet gets tangled up in a string of murders as he desperately tries to suffocate his sickness: “He’d had everything, and somehow nothing was better.”
And the sickness instead spreads to outright discomfort for the reader: “It was funny the way these people kept asking for it. Just latching onto you, no matter how you tried to brush them off, and almost telling you how they wanted it done. Why'd they all have to come to me to get killed?”
An exploration of a truly messed-up mind, tainted forever by childhood trauma, The Killer Inside Me is a classic work of crime fiction, one that leaves you turning the page again and again (i literally read this whole book on two flights to Texas), while simultaneously shuttering away from the dark twists and tormented thoughts of its protagonist.
Throughout the book, that sickness threatens to emerge again, unless tampered down somehow, usually through violent means: “She’d made the old fire burn again. She even showed me how to square with Conway.”
Lou Ford’s past, as we get a little more of it bit by bit, haunts him, and he does his best to hide it. That past keeps surfacing as something to do with his brother, Mike, who took the blame for some unforgivable deed that Lou did as a child. As a result, Mike is eventually killed by Conway, set up as an accident.
The book then is a minor revenge plot to get back at Conway — I say minor, because though that’s the device to keep the narrative moving, it really is about Ford’s sociopathic tendencies and his internal struggle to keep those tendencies in check. But those thoughts lead him to dark places: “I’d get rid of her, and it would all be over for all time.”
Easily the most terrifying scenes, and what makes this a classic crime noir thriller, are Lou Ford’s detachment from his carefully planned murders. He kills with the precision of an assassin, completely separated from his victims, no matter how close he was with them: His lover, his girlfriend, a town bum, Conway’s son — the bodies start piling up.
It is the first murder that really sets the book in motion though, that of a local prostitute who Lou’s taken as a lover, and one of her clients who is in love with her. Yet it doesn't go as planned, and the consequences are lurking in the shadows throughout the book: “I’d done everything I could to get rid of a couple of undesirable citizens in a neat no-kickbacks way. And here one of ‘em was still alive.”
Lou Ford is looking for peace, but looks for it in all the wrong places. He wishes to escape the town, yet gets tangled up in a string of murders as he desperately tries to suffocate his sickness: “He’d had everything, and somehow nothing was better.”
And the sickness instead spreads to outright discomfort for the reader: “It was funny the way these people kept asking for it. Just latching onto you, no matter how you tried to brush them off, and almost telling you how they wanted it done. Why'd they all have to come to me to get killed?”
An exploration of a truly messed-up mind, tainted forever by childhood trauma, The Killer Inside Me is a classic work of crime fiction, one that leaves you turning the page again and again (i literally read this whole book on two flights to Texas), while simultaneously shuttering away from the dark twists and tormented thoughts of its protagonist.
sams84's review against another edition
4.0
I'll admit I did see the movie before reading this but it was a while ago and as usual it doesn't really do justice to the book. The book manages to keep the two sides to Lou's character far better than any film and Thompson's simple straight forward style of writing adds to the disturbing nature of Lou's character and the way that his friends and neighbours deal with it (or not...). The story is paced well and builds gradually at first, picking up speed as things begin to spiral out of control and Lou's grip on himself begins to slip. An excellent read that offers a real insight into a very warped mind.
zutsie's review against another edition
4.0
I had no idea what I was getting when I ordered this book, so I went into this one totally blind. In fact, I didn't even read the synopsis when I opened it, I just decided to go ahead and see what it was all about, and see how dark and twisted it would be, how accurate the blurbs from King and Kubrick would be, and I was not disappointed.
This book is told from Lou's perspective, and the longer you read, the more you realise that Lou is, indeed, not right, and definitely has a deviant mind and a masterful way of rationalising the way he thinks, and definitely feels that he is smarter than anyone around him. It is evident throughout that Lou is off, and the more you read, the more chilling his detachment from people and regular social norms is.
The story is simply told, and you put together the puzzle pieces of Lou, his life, and the reasons he provides for the things that he does. It is also a cold look into events and people, and that makes this a right fascinating read. Lou seems like a dude that everyone likes, but it soon shows that the more things go wrong, not everyone is swept up by his Southern charms.
The Killer Inside Me also spends some time on some hardcore deaths, some sad ones, and a look see at some master manipulations. There are allusions as to Lou's past, and they crop up consistently, but it is also evident that, because the telling of this story is from Lou, there is a lot of stuff that he doesn't want to spend too much time examining, so we ultimately only have hte bare bones of his childhood and how his father and Michael fit in, and how that comes together. You get a lot of opportunity to fill in the blanks.
The Killer Inside Me is compelling, from the off. You are drawn into Lou's world, the strange way he deals with people, how he has a mask on, and how that slips. There is some scheming and wheeling and dealing all the time that you are reading, and it is interesting to see how it all ties together, and what Lou's thoughts on the matter are.
Indeed, The Killer Inside Me is a darker, more chilling insight and read. I was fascinated and thought it was excellent. It is a short book, so it tells the story quickly, but it never actually feels rushed and is a breeze to read. I could highly recommend this if you are into reading a book that is telling the story from the perspective of a killer, one you get to spend a bit of time with. I could definitely recommend this one.
This book is told from Lou's perspective, and the longer you read, the more you realise that Lou is, indeed, not right, and definitely has a deviant mind and a masterful way of rationalising the way he thinks, and definitely feels that he is smarter than anyone around him. It is evident throughout that Lou is off, and the more you read, the more chilling his detachment from people and regular social norms is.
The story is simply told, and you put together the puzzle pieces of Lou, his life, and the reasons he provides for the things that he does. It is also a cold look into events and people, and that makes this a right fascinating read. Lou seems like a dude that everyone likes, but it soon shows that the more things go wrong, not everyone is swept up by his Southern charms.
The Killer Inside Me also spends some time on some hardcore deaths, some sad ones, and a look see at some master manipulations. There are allusions as to Lou's past, and they crop up consistently, but it is also evident that, because the telling of this story is from Lou, there is a lot of stuff that he doesn't want to spend too much time examining, so we ultimately only have hte bare bones of his childhood and how his father and Michael fit in, and how that comes together. You get a lot of opportunity to fill in the blanks.
The Killer Inside Me is compelling, from the off. You are drawn into Lou's world, the strange way he deals with people, how he has a mask on, and how that slips. There is some scheming and wheeling and dealing all the time that you are reading, and it is interesting to see how it all ties together, and what Lou's thoughts on the matter are.
Indeed, The Killer Inside Me is a darker, more chilling insight and read. I was fascinated and thought it was excellent. It is a short book, so it tells the story quickly, but it never actually feels rushed and is a breeze to read. I could highly recommend this if you are into reading a book that is telling the story from the perspective of a killer, one you get to spend a bit of time with. I could definitely recommend this one.
p_t_b's review against another edition
4.0
so i had a really hard time not imagining the protagonist/nonhero of Killer Inside Me as casey affleck, because of the movie, and that made it harder to remember that he is a homicidal murdering nutjob because I have strong positive feeligns toward casey affleck. art is complicated.
anyway the read grabbed me, despite the nasty and unpleasant content (do not under any circumstances read this if graphic violence, specifically a man beating up women, upsets you or is not your cup of whatever). But after a class discussion and reckoning with the fact that the Lou Ford I liked, the doofus who spews cliches, is just a mask devised by the Lou Ford who is a horrible murderer left me feeling kind of fucked with. Which, yeah yeah, that was the point. But I dunno, who likes getting fucked with? I am too nice for this book although I will acknowledge the craft that went into creating it.
anyway the read grabbed me, despite the nasty and unpleasant content (do not under any circumstances read this if graphic violence, specifically a man beating up women, upsets you or is not your cup of whatever). But after a class discussion and reckoning with the fact that the Lou Ford I liked, the doofus who spews cliches, is just a mask devised by the Lou Ford who is a horrible murderer left me feeling kind of fucked with. Which, yeah yeah, that was the point. But I dunno, who likes getting fucked with? I am too nice for this book although I will acknowledge the craft that went into creating it.
tony_t's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I found "The Killer Inside Me" by Jim Thompson a satisfyingly noir story about Lou Ford, a deputy sheriff in Central City, Texas who is a serial killer. The entire story is told by Lou with his interior dialog providing rationales and justifications for his actions. I hesitate to say that I enjoyed this book but I found it a quick and engaging story. Recommended if you are into noir.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, and Police brutality
anettseda's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
evildrspod's review against another edition
4.0
Jim Thompsons most well known book and with good reason. So many films and modern TV series plots completely rip this off. A classic.
thinkspink's review against another edition
5.0
Everybody said I should read it, and they were right. Incredibly dark, and deserves its reputation