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A review by jrobles76
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
4.0
This was a great book and as a fan of Crime & Detective Fiction, I have no idea why it's taken me so long to read it. Since this book was written many people have tried their hand at first person narratives from the killer's point of view. Let's just say few are as successful. Lou Ford is a straight up sociopath/psychopath, though he tries to use the term schizophrenic - it is the 1950s after all and forensic psychology was a little ways off.
Ford is well liked, and he seems nice enough, but like any sociopath it's just an act. He secretly dislikes and looks down on everyone he interacts with. The veil starts to wear thin, though, and it triggers a killing spree.
Ford blames the killing spree on the feelings stirred up by Lakeland, a woman of ill-repute (whore) he strikes up an affair with after attempting to tell her to leave town. The violence he'd not experienced in years comes out. But what really brings out the psychopath in him, is when he feels that the union guy is on to him about his first victim when he was young. The character, being a psychopath, rationalizes every action as if it is the perfect answer to whatever problem has just arisen. The author doesn't just show us an evil man with a hunger for murder. No, he shows us a mind that thinks it's operating rationally. Ford believes that every action he's taken makes sense, and that life will just get back to normal once everyone arrives at the same logical conclusion. We now know that psychopaths and sociopaths have an inability to empathize with others, and Jim Thompson wrote a character that embodies that. Regular people have feelings, and Ford is faking them. Regular people notice that and that's what outs Ford in the end.
What sets this book apart from others of the genre is it's realistic portrayal of a psychopathic mind. Not just creating a bogeyman with no basis in reality, but creating an accurate portrait of a killer. I look forward to reading more of his books.
Ford is well liked, and he seems nice enough, but like any sociopath it's just an act. He secretly dislikes and looks down on everyone he interacts with. The veil starts to wear thin, though, and it triggers a killing spree.
Ford blames the killing spree on the feelings stirred up by Lakeland, a woman of ill-repute (whore) he strikes up an affair with after attempting to tell her to leave town. The violence he'd not experienced in years comes out. But what really brings out the psychopath in him, is when he feels that the union guy is on to him about his first victim when he was young. The character, being a psychopath, rationalizes every action as if it is the perfect answer to whatever problem has just arisen. The author doesn't just show us an evil man with a hunger for murder. No, he shows us a mind that thinks it's operating rationally. Ford believes that every action he's taken makes sense, and that life will just get back to normal once everyone arrives at the same logical conclusion. We now know that psychopaths and sociopaths have an inability to empathize with others, and Jim Thompson wrote a character that embodies that. Regular people have feelings, and Ford is faking them. Regular people notice that and that's what outs Ford in the end.
What sets this book apart from others of the genre is it's realistic portrayal of a psychopathic mind. Not just creating a bogeyman with no basis in reality, but creating an accurate portrait of a killer. I look forward to reading more of his books.