The Killer Inside Me

"The Killer Inside Me" is the best known novel by American writer Jim Thompson. Written in 1952 in the noir tradition, the work is notable not only for its departure from traditional American hardboiled crime fiction but because, like the best of the noir novels of the 1950s, it abandons the formulaic for the innovative, bending the rules of the genre to experiment psychologically. In the introduction to the anthology "Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s", it is described as "one of the most blistering and uncompromising crime novels ever written."

Plot summary

The story is told through the eyes of its protagonist, Lou Ford, a deputy sheriff in a small Texas town. Ford seems to be a regular, slightly boring, normal, and at times dumb and lazy small town cop with few obsessions. However, he is slowly revealed to be a deeply disturbed murderer—one who is paranoid-schizophrenic, sociopathic, cunning, and ruthless.

Explaining his behavior with reference to a number of obsessive and neurotic motives, Ford murders a prostitute and her lover, the latter a son of a local millionaire and the real power in town. Ford then proceeds to build himself a solid alibi and frame other people for the double homicide. However, to successfully frame others when the evidence starts to go against him, he has to commit additional murders or induce further deaths. But these only increase suspicion until the local authorities begin stripping away his "normal" mask. Then he reveals to the reader the full nature of the inner demons that drive his criminal behavior.

With its deeply dark and pessimistic world view, this has proven itself a highly influential novel that has been reissued in at least three editions and made into a Hollywood film.

Popular culture

The novel was made into a film of the same title in 1976, directed by Burt Kennedy. Stacy Keach plays Lou Ford.

The book is the inspiration for the song of the same name by MC 900 Ft. Jesus.

It is mentioned by name in the song "Sri Lanka Sex Hotel" by the Dead Milkmen.

References

"Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s", by Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. 1997. New York: The Library of America. ISBN 1-883011-49-3

[http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0074746/ "The Killer Inside Me"] at the "Internet Movie Database"