Getaway

Jim Thompson (1906-1977) was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. After an itinerant childhood during which his sheriff father was driven from office for embezzlement, and as a roughneck in the Texan oil fields of the 1920s, Thompson became successful as a writer with the pulp fiction houses of the 1950s, writing a dozen of his more enduring novels in just 19 months. Among his many novels are THE KILLER INSIDE ME, THE GRIFTERS, THE GETAWAY and AFTER DARK, MY SWEET. He also wrote two screenplays (for the Stanley Kubrick films THE KILLING and PATHS OF GLORY). POP. 1280 was an acclaimed French film under the title COUP DE TORCHON.

I don't read many books twice but Jim Thompson novels - due to their concise, dirty power, their relentless violence and purity - can always draw me in for a second time. Some of the most psychological crime writing ever done. I love James M Cain and Elmore Leonard but Jim Thompson holds a special place in my heart.