---
product_id: 10972839
title: "Killer Inside Me (Mulholland Classic)"
brand: "jim thompson"
price: "€ 31.59"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 8
url: https://www.desertcart.fr/products/10972839-killer-inside-me-mulholland-classic
store_origin: FR
region: France
---

# Killer Inside Me (Mulholland Classic)

**Brand:** jim thompson
**Price:** € 31.59
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Killer Inside Me (Mulholland Classic) by jim thompson
- **How much does it cost?** € 31.59 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
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## Description

Killer Inside Me (Mulholland Classic)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Among the Best Pulp That Became Literature
  

*by D***O on Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2011*

Lou Ford is a consummate serial killer created by a writer who knew his way around the dark nooks and crannies of the troubled, impassioned, and diseased minds of wayward men and women better than most, and who masterfully portrayed these traits in simple, stark, and powerful language.  THE KILLER INSIDE ME, perhaps his best, serves as the blueprint for the nearly perfect serial killer novel because it plunks you down inside the mind of the killer; you see the world through his off kilter eyes.  If you're looking for crime fiction that stands heads and shoulders above the usual genre fare stuffed with overly dramatized and generally implausible protagonists, THE KILLER INSIDE ME, along with a handful of other novels, may be what you want.THE KILLER INSIDE ME offers you Lou Ford, the aw-shucks deputy who appears a little slow on the uptake, who handily dispenses clichés upon every occasion, who, in short, strikes you as a pretty nice, ineffective guy in the beginning and then, amazingly, given his predilection for murder, a sympathetic, tormented man.  It's a credit to Thompson's skill that you feel for Ford in the end.Don't assume that just because THE KILLER INSIDE ME appeared in 1952 that the prose is censored milquetoast.  Thompson's writing is blunt and raw, as in the scene in which Lou cold-bloodedly kills Joyce, the prostitute he's been frequenting and abusing as he executes his plan of revenge against local big-deal Chester Conway:  "I backed her against the wall, slugging, and it was like pounding a pumpkin.  Hard, then everything giving away at once."  Or this, after inflicting a brutal beating upon his fiancé, leaving her barely alive while he awaits the person he plans to frame for her murder:  "I sat down and tried to read the paper.  I tried to keep my eyes on it.  But the light wasn't very good, not good enough to read by, and she kept moving around.  It looked like she couldn't lie still."  Those are the thoughts of a true sociopath.Don't fear extraneous excursions into back stories and side narratives; or excessive descriptions of the countryside or characters.  Thompson gives exactly enough to provide context and move the story along swiftly.  That's no mean ability; it earned him a living as a screen and television writer for Stanley Kubrick and others.Do expect sharply drawn characters.  You'll get to know Lou, Joyce, Elmer, Chester, Johnnie (who put his trust in a psychopath who understood only self preservation), Amy (who campaigned to marry Lou to unfortunate results), and the others not through elaborate descriptions but through what they say and do.And do expect a realistic serial killer who goes about his business in a straightforward way, a killer who is at heart a sociopath, a manipulator of people, who Thompson based on emerging research on psychopathology, research that forms the foundation of modern thinking about these people.Highly recommended not only as the best crime fiction but also a fine literary experience.Along the lines of Thompson, other writers have put readers into the minds of serial killers with interesting, satisfying, and enlightening results.  Some recommendations are:  Joyce Carol Oates's ZOMBIE, in which Quentin travels around Michigan in search of victims to lobotomize into sexual service; THE COLLECTOR, featuring the self-centered Fred Clegg who wins a pool and uses the money to collect beautiful young women, Miranda the first, whom he expects to love him; and my own I, KILLER, in which morbid men congregate around the bed of a psychopathic killer and lead him to his judgment at the hands of a girl named Sarah.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Not just a noir
  

*by C***) on Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2014*

Publication date: 1952I was not sure I wanted to read this book. It has a reputation as a 'portrait of a serial killer,' and that does not appeal to me; but this strange pulp novel did.  It is a 'Texas tale,' very Southern, about the standards that uphold society, and that society upholds, sometimes to the detriment of truth:“Bruises?” I said. “Gosh, you got me there, Howard. How would I know?”“H-how”—he sputtered—“how would you know?”“Yeah?” I said, puzzled. “How?”“Why, goddam you! You’d been screwing that gal for years! You—”“Don’t say that,” I said.“No,” said Jeff Plummer, “don’t say that.”There is a running gag that deadpan platitudes are as bad as a punch in the gut:Rothman got up and put on his hat. “Well, I can’t find it in my heart to chide you for the stunt, despite its unfortunate outcome. I almost wish I’d thought of it.”“Aw,” I said, “it wasn’t nothing much. Just a matter of a will finding a way.”“Ooof!” he said. “What are Conway’s feelings, by the way?”“Well, I don’t think he feels real good,” I said.“Probably something he ate,” he nodded. “Don’t you imagine? But watch that stuff, Lou. Watch it. Save it for those birds.”He left.Thompson wants us to know that although Lou Ford is not as dumb as everyone thinks he is, he is also not as clever as he tells us he is.  The fact is, his form of irony is pretty low grade:I debated calling up the newspapers and complimenting them on their “accuracy.” I often did that, spread a little sunshine, you know, and they ate it up. I could say something—I laughed—I could say something about truth being stranger than fiction. And maybe add something like—well—murder will out. Or… the best laid plans of mice and men.I stopped laughing...

### ⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Playboy's best book for a manly read? C'mon, man! You can do better than this!
  

*by G***R on Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2010*

(Originally published at Basil & Spice)I first heard of this book while reading a short article in Playboy magazine about the best books for real men.  Playboy put this 1952-era crime noir novel at the top of that list. Then I heard that a movie version was headed our way, starring Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba. So, curiosity inspired me to give it a try. Like the magazine that recommended it, The Killer Inside Me turns out to be dated and a bit of a bore.  Now I'm struggling to understand all the fuss.As a fan of hard-boiled crime novels and true crime nonfiction, I have tried to include readings from the roots of those genres to understand them better.  Sad to say, I am usually disappointed when I compare the masters of the 1940s and 50s--like Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane--with their literary descendants of these days--Elmore Leonard, Jeffery Deaver and Dennis Lehane come quickly to mind.  The Killer Inside Me should be read in that vein, as an example of a more primitive literary time. Students of noir who can put themselves into a black-and-white frame-of-mind will want to include this on their resumes. The author, Jim Thompson, died in 1977 at the age of 70. But modern readers in search of entertainment should look elsewhere.The Killer Inside Me could make an intriguing period-piece of a movie. The book tells the story through the eyes of a psychopathic deputy sheriff in a small West Texas oil town. It details Lou Ford's final crimes and delves into what he calls his "sickness"--the killer inside him. The 2010 movie is a remake of an earlier film from 1976 that starred Stacy Keach. But neither could ever match the FX series 
  
The Shield: Complete Series







  
  
    for a stark portrayal of police corruption--another symptom of generation gap with this book..Thompson authored several successful cinematic crime novels, including 
  
The Getaway (Deluxe Edition)







  
  
    and 
  
The Grifters (Miramax Collector's Series)







  
  
    .  But he received minimal recognition in his lifetime. His novels were resurrected in 1980 by the Vintage Crime Black Lizard unit of Random House. The Killer Inside Me has been touted as Thompson's finest work with Thompson described by some as the "dimestore Dostoyevsky" for the book's raw portrayal of a violent man fighting his demons. Many of his themes appear autobiographical from his youth as the son of an Oklahoma sheriff to his work in the Texas oil fields and briefly as a newspaper reporter for the Los Angeles Mirror. He honed his fiction credentials by taking newspaper crime events and turning them into short stories told imaginatively from the perspective of the criminal.He worked most prominently as a screen writer for the film director Stanley Kubrick, notably on the classic 
  
Paths of Glory







  
  
    . Kubrick is quoted in a blurb on the Vintage Crime edition of The Killer Inside Me, describing this book as "Probably the most chilling and believable first-person story of a criminally warped mind I have ever encountered."Kubrick either owed Jim Thompson a big favor, or, he hadn't read much dime store Dostoyevsky.  Probably the latter.

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*Product available on Desertcart France*
*Store origin: FR*
*Last updated: 2026-02-25*