A Swell-Looking Babe

Dusty Rhodes is one seriously screwed-up dude. Of course when this book was first published in 1954, no one would have thought to call him a "dude," but no one would have disputed the fact that he was a young man with some pretty nasty problems--in other words, just the sort of protagonist that you'......more

Dave’s noir fest continues. A Swell Looking Babe is my fourth Thompson book, after The Killer Inside Me, The Grifters, and After Dark, My Sweet, all of which I liked a bit better, but this is still a book by the writer Stephen King said was his favorite. And this book was King’s favorite, so it is w......more

Following a hunch, I decided to make this Thompson book my bus book - something to catch off-and-on, on-the-run, back-and-forth to work. It worked. I've read enough of Thompson by now and something about his stuff told me he'd benefit from being in motion while being read. This particular tale is so......more

Trademark Jim Thompson; a psychological crime pulp that delves deep into the confused and corrupted amid a mixture of violence, longing and sense of hopelessness that only Thompson can muster. The plot itself is simplistic, with the linear nature incorporating flashbacks to Dusty’s (lead character)......more

This is a strange little novel. The first chapter really baits the hook and then the narrative wanders for 35 or so pages, where I was wondering ok what is the point of all this? - although it will all become important by the end of the book - and then blammo, we are headlong into a blackmail and ho......more