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Published: 2004
Category: Mystery
Stanley Kubrick, the film director who knew a thing or three about evil, said “The Killer Inside Me” was "probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered."
Butler says: That’s an understatement.
For Jim Thompson, who also wrote “The Grifters” and “The Getaway,” had no problem looking into the darkest reaches of the human soul and mirthlessly presenting what he found --- that is, violence, corruption and nihilism.
Of all his 29 novels, Exhibit A would definitely be “The Killer Inside Me,” the 240-page sickfest that Thompson knocked off in just four weeks.
This is the story of Lou Ford, deputy sheriff of Central City, Texas (population: 48,000). He's the kind of dullard you do anything to avoid --- he spouts the most inane cliches, he's Mr. Hearty to one and all, he’s so damn friendly and boring he drives everybody crazy. What nobody gets: He’s really a kind of genius who acts like a dope on purpose. And then, when no one is looking, he's a serial killer who’s kinky as hell.
Butler’s not woofin’ about kink; this is no book for kids. When “The Killer Inside Me” was published in 1952, the sex must have made readers blink in surprise. But that’s nothing compared to his almost-orgasmic joy in violence. Lou’s capable of beating a drifter senseless just for the hell of it, but his worst crimes are against women --- “the sickness” comes over him, and he can’t fight his own pathology.
And once he’s in its power…..well, here’s a sample:
She still didn’t get it. She laughed, frowning a little at the same time. “But Lou --- that doesn’t make sense. How could I be dead when...?' "Easy,” I said. And I gave her a slap. And still she didn’t get it.
She put a hand to her hand to her face and rubbed it slowly. “Y-you’d better not do that, now, Lou. I’ve got to travel, and ---““
"You’re not going anywhere, baby,”I said, and I hit her again.
And then she got it.
Why read such horrifying, disgusting stuff? Precisely because it’s so acutely rendered --- no writer creates psychopaths more compelling than Jim Thompson. And no writer I can think of can put you inside a sicko’s head as totally as Thompson. How does he do it? In the simplest, most insidious way: He writes in the first person. As a result, by the time you're gasped your way to the end, you may feel profoundly like Lou Ford --- and completely unlike yourself.
This book gives new definition to the phrase "guilty pleasure." Just make sure you don’t have to be anywhere after you start reading it --- you’re not going to be able to tear yourself away from “The Killer Inside Me.”
To buy “The Killer Inside Me” from Amazon.com, click here.