T is for .......
Thompson...... Jim Thompson and a couple from his ouevre
I read a bit of him back in the early 90s when I first discovered him, but not so much in the intervening years. I still have a lot of his books to plough through.
Ironside (based around the TV show starring Raymond Burr) was read in 2015 and The Rip-Off in 2013, probably not two of his better books.
Texas by the Tail and After Dark My Sweet
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| After Dark My Sweet (1955) |
William Collins is very handsome, very polite, and very friendly. His is also dangerous when aroused. Now Collins, a one-time boxer with a lethal "accident" in his past, has broken out of his fourth mental institution and met up with an affable con man and a highly arousing woman, whose plans for him include kidnapping, murder, and much, much worse.
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| Texas by the Tail (1965) |
Mitch Corley has a girlfriend with expensive tastes and a ruthless wife who refuses to become an "ex" without major compensation. He needs big money and he needs it fast. Which makes Texas Mitch's natural destination, since nowhere are rich men more inclined to stake huge sums on a roll of the dice. The only problem is that Texans are sore losers--and they have cruel and ingenious ways of getting back at anyone who cheats them.
T is for ......
Texas - as a setting. I've read a few great books set in this vast state - Attica Locke's Bluebird, Bluebird and Heaven, My Home, Nic Pizzolato's Galveston and Joe's R. Lansdale's The Thicket to mention a few.
I've more than a few great ones ahead of me including Lansdale's Hap and Leonard dozen book long series. Savage Season (probably read before in the pre-blogging days) from 1990 is the first.
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| Savage Season (1990) |
Here comes Trudy back into Hap's life, thirty-six but looking ten years younger, with long blonde hair and legs that begin under her chin, and the kind of walk that'll make a man run his car off the road. Here comes trouble, says Leonard, and he's right. She was always trouble, but she had this laugh when she was happy in bed that could win Hap over every time. Trudy has a proposition: an easy two hundred thousand dollars, tax-free. It's just a simple matter of digging it up... Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, white and black, straight and gay, are the unlikeliest duo in crime fiction. Savage Season is their debut.
Lastly,
T is for....
Tower - a 2009 collaborative novel from two authors I've enjoyed in the past - Ken Bruen and Reed Farrel Coleman
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| Tower (2009) |
Born into a rough Brooklyn neighborhood, outsiders in their own families, Nick and Todd forge a lifelong bond that persists in the face of crushing loss, blood, and betrayal. Low-level wiseguys with little ambition and even less of a future, the friends become major players in the potential destruction of an international crime syndicate that stretches from the cargo area at Kennedy Airport to the streets of New York, Belfast, and Boston to the alleyways of Mexican border towns. Their paths are littered with the bodies of undercover cops, snitches, lovers, and stone-cold killers. In the tradition of The Long Goodbye, Mystic River, and The Departed, Tower is a powerful meditation on friendship, fate, and fatality. A twice-told tale done in the unique format of parallel narratives that intersect at deadly crossroads, Tower is like a beautifully crafted knife to the heart. Imagine a Brooklyn rabbi/poet -- Reed Farrel Coleman -- collaborating with a mad Celt from the West of Ireland -- Ken Bruen -- to produce a novel unlike anything you've ever encountered. A ferocious blast of gut-wrenching passion that blends the fierce granite of Galway and the streetwise rap of Brooklyn. Fasten your seat belts, this is an experience that is as incendiary as it is heart shriven.
See U next week!
Previous Alphabet entries.....
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - A IS FOR.... AX, ABBOTT, ABERDEEN
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - B IS FOR ....... BOSTON, BIRD, BONES
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - C IS FOR.........CAPE TOWN, CONFIDENCE MEN, CROSS
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - D IS FOR ....... DETROIT, DISHER, DEAD
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - E IS FOR ....... EDINBURGH, EXCESS, ELLIS
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - F IS FOR ....... FLORIDA, FRANCIS, FLOATERS
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - G IS FOR ....... GALWAY, GUNS, GRAFTON
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - H IS FOR ....... HAMBURG, HAMMETT, HIDDEN RIVER
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - I IS FOR ....... ICE, ICELAND, IZZO
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - J IS FOR ....... JAPAN, JACK CARTER. JELLO SALAD
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - K IS FOR ....... KING, KOREA, KEEPER
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - L IS FOR ........ LE CRIME, LEONARD, LOS ANGELES
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - M IS FOR ........ MIAMI, MACKAY, MUCHO MOJO
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - N IS FOR ........ NORWAY, NISBET, NEMESIS
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - O IS FOR ........ OWEN, ONE NIGHT STANDS AND LOST WEEKENDS, OXFORD
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - P IS FOR ........ PARKER, PHILADELPHIA, PAYDIRT
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - R IS FOR ........ RAYMOND, ROGUE COP, RUSSIA
CRIME FICTION ALPHABET - S IS FOR ...... SWEDEN, SMITH, SILENT JOE
Thompson wrote some potent books, Col. Certainly not light, easy reads, but gritty, hard-edged stuff. One of the pioneers of that sort of writing, in my opinion. Hope you'll enjoy what you read.
ReplyDeleteAgreed Margot. I think he only came to be appreciated after his death which is a shame, but maybe not uncommon for a lot of people in the arts. I'm looking forward to reading more from him in the coming years.
DeleteCol – If you are looking for a laugh, Jim Thompson is a strange choice of author, but his “Pop. 1280” has some funny stuff in it. I have yet to get to Hap and Leonard, but I’m looking forward to the stories.
ReplyDeleteI dug out some Thompson recently from the stack, but haven't yet gotten into it. I hope you enjoy Landsdale intrepid duo at some point, Elgin
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