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201st out of 281 books
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76 voters
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The Transgressors
by
Jim Thompson
On the day he accidentally killed Aaron McBride, Tom Lord went from being a sheriff's deputy to a man awaiting execution. Because if the law didn't punish him, his victim's widow--or his shadowy business associates--surely would.
Paperback, 254 pages
Published
February 1st 1994
by Vintage
(first published 1961)
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My dad used to hire this handyman out in Palm Springs who was from Texas or Arkansas and was kinda the stoic, surly type who quietly hated city people and used good, common horse sense in figuring people out. When he perspired he smelled like Kentucky sour mash and you never felt comfortable around him because he wasn't smart enough to be subtle in his hatred of people in general.
Tom Lord, the main character in "The Transgressors" is exactly that kind of asshole. There ar...more
Tom Lord, the main character in "The Transgressors" is exactly that kind of asshole. There ar...more
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This is the third novel by Thompson that I've read, and one that I must conclude was written during his decline. Most of the plot elements feel like a hodge-podge of The Killer Inside Me and The Getaway. While both those novels had moments where the scale shifted, where certain observations and statements brought in a larger, if still very dark perspective, this one felt cramped and suffocating in its sordidness. Plot developments seemed to happen more or less at random and while some of the sup...more
Jim Thompson is always worth the time. However, some of his books hit the ribs and torso stronger than others. While I enjoyed this one while reading it, the afterglow was briefer than classics like THE GRIFTERS, THE KILLER INSIDE, and AFTER DARK, MY SWEET. The morally ambivalent main character, while enjoyable, isn't quite as sharply etched as others by Thompson but was still a good ride. The classic Thompson trait of people doomed to play out the cards dealt to them is in abundant and fun evid...more
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Maybe C McCarthy has taken over my mental Texas landscape, but Thompson comes off as thin. I need to check out 'The Killer Inside Me' or whatever is considered to be "The Thompson" to read, because my experiments so far have me thinking he's rather weak. Even within the genre, James Ellroy or Elmore Leonard write circles around this guy. Maybe that's unfair because Thompson came first. Maybe it's also unfair having read the bio 'Savage Art', because whenever things start breaking d...more
i liked the language of the characters. there isn't enough character development or story development. you don't really know why any of the characters do what the do or why they are even friends with the main character...it was a very quick read...might be open to reading one of thompson's more popular works.
Best Thompson I've read yet. A perfect blend of autobiography, The Killer Inside Me, and No Country for Old Men.
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James Myers Thompson was a United States writer of novels, short stories and screenplays, largely in the hardboiled style of crime fiction.
Thompson wrote more than thirty novels, the majority of which were original paperback publications by pulp fic...more
More about Jim Thompson...
James Myers Thompson was a United States writer of novels, short stories and screenplays, largely in the hardboiled style of crime fiction.
Thompson wrote more than thirty novels, the majority of which were original paperback publications by pulp fic...more
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