A Hell of a Woman

It’s nice to know that when everyday life starts to seem kind of depressing that you can escape into a good book. Unless that book is by Jim Thompson. Then you’re screwed. Frank ‘Dolly’ Dillon will tell you that he’s a hard working joe saddled with a lazy wife, and he just can’t catch a break at his......more

This is the first Jim Thompson book I've read (don't know why it took so long), but it was definitely an experience. The story starts out with a fairly simple and familiar noir plot, focusing on a door-to door salesman who gets smitten for a meek, but strangely attractive young woman, and hatches a......more

"There's just some guys that get the breaks, and some that don't. And me, I guess you know the kind I am." One of the best from one of the all time pulp/noir greats, Jim Thompson, the "Dimestore Dostoevsky." Published in 1954. He also wrote The Killer Inside Me, among many others. Both that book and......more

these 3 star ratings reflect a lack of consistency as thompson was a pulpdrunk piece-of-shit meet-a-deadline writer who could reach great heights but then'd mar the work with some sloppyass booshit. just as simenon, in response to a question asking if he had a 'great' book in him, said that all his......more

This is vintage Jim Thompson--a story filled with irredeemable characters and lots of sex, violence and alcohol. Frank Dillon is an outside salesman/collector for a company that preys on low-income people. He drinks too hard and plays fast and loose with his company accounts. A parade of unsatisfact......more