A review by halvy4
Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson

5.0

What starts as a fun Sheriff Nick Corey hangout novel (man, all these girls want to sleep with him! He sure does eat a lot! He doesn't enforce the law at all!) ends in him proclaiming himself the resurrected Christ sent to tempt people into their own destruction as the blood of the (at least) 6 dead bodies he's responsible for accumulates at his feet. Thompson is hilarious, Corey's narration nonchalantly going through adultery, murder, framing others for those murders, and the destruction of others with an aw shucks, nonchalant attitude that reveals no hint of the plans he's made nor the gravity of what he's done. Through Corey, and the inability of the town to punish him, Thompson shows the incompetence of the powerful in holding their own accountable because of their own inequities/stupidity and centers in on the heart of policing and the function of American governance as racism, sexism, protecting the rich, and the maintaining of these stupid men in their positions of power.