- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Orion; New edition edition (18 Nov 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0752852140
- ISBN-13: 978-0752852140
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 310,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Nothing More Than Murder
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Product Description
Review
'Full of atmosphere, this has a fabuloulsy old-school feel. But there's nothing cosy about this sharp vision of corrupt small-town life.' (Andrea Henry DAILY MIRROR )
'Thompson is both a brilliant and entirely uncompromising writer, and, here, in place of sentiment and salvation is the real and unflinching, bitter unraveling of the American dream.' (GLASGOW HERALD )
'The plot twists come thick and fast, right up until the end, in an acceleration of incident and revelation. Nothing More Than Murder isn't simply noir; it is nightmare.' (Paul Kane WWW.NEWMYSTERYREADER.COM )
'Thompson is both a brilliant and entirely uncompromising writer, and, here, in place of sentiment and salvation is the real and unflinching, bitter unraveling of the American dream.' (GLASGOW HERALD )
'The plot twists come thick and fast, right up until the end, in an acceleration of incident and revelation. Nothing More Than Murder isn't simply noir; it is nightmare.' (Paul Kane WWW.NEWMYSTERYREADER.COM )
GLASGOW HERALD
'Thompson is both a brilliant and entirely uncompromising writer, and, here, in place of sentiment and salvation is the real and unflinching, bitter unraveling of the American dream.'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This novel is Jim Thompson at his best. A tale of small town fraud, murder, lies and adultery. Joe Wilmot is a part-owner of a small movie house with a passion for conning his employees and talking down the unions. He is a man with it all sewn up, an arrogant man with a deadly fraud in mind. But the final twist in the form of his mistress and a tenacious insurance investigator called Appleton, brings this powerful tale of suspense to a shuddering, disturbing conclusion. Very similar in places to Double Indeminity, but still Thompson at his best.
Format:Paperback
Early Jim novel where he combines a dollop of Nietzschean philosophy with a sprinkling of Marx to illuminate, no, provide an X Ray of American proto capitalism. Jim choses the movie business to expose, the small house players in a burgeoning town making their way up a greasy pole.
Wilmot is the product of orphanage and reform school working his way up from hired help to cinema owner. He is sharp and also likeable in his way. The story is told through his eyes and he is a far more adjusted character than the Sherrif's in other books, but he has to double deal to stay afloat within his chosen profession. Just like now with the charitable sector, the little players are at the mercy of the big consumers wanting to create monopolies to dictate to the distributors who plays the films when and at what rate. Jim goes into considerable detail about how capitalism works in the film showing business. He provides a far greater explanation of free trade than Adam Smith, Hayek and Milton Friedman could ever do. Jim tells it like it is, without the baggage of fairy tale ideology. This book should be a staple on an MBA, it traverses the pulp genre of crime to highlight how "trade" and greed become converted into crime and eventually murder.
It is profusely rich in detail and may be off putting to those who just want their "kicks" imagining they are the gangsta man with a stick. This book is marketed as pulp but instead tells a far more vibrant story.
Not as macabre as Pop 1280, Killer Inside Me or Grifters but far better than standard crime fayre whodunnit produce, the bread and butter of this genre. You know, the good detective setting the world to rights through....errr... detection although an element of this pipes away in the background.
Double crossing, double dealing blows across the prairie of barren minds whilst love withers on the vine after a brief flowering in spring. Jim introduces a kaleidoscope of elements into the plot, such as revenge for institutional violence, the protagonist a killer his apeothesis the insurance man his mirror double, good and strangely capitalist evil. Jim still had a modicum of morality when he wrote this book but don't let that put you off.
Wilmot is the product of orphanage and reform school working his way up from hired help to cinema owner. He is sharp and also likeable in his way. The story is told through his eyes and he is a far more adjusted character than the Sherrif's in other books, but he has to double deal to stay afloat within his chosen profession. Just like now with the charitable sector, the little players are at the mercy of the big consumers wanting to create monopolies to dictate to the distributors who plays the films when and at what rate. Jim goes into considerable detail about how capitalism works in the film showing business. He provides a far greater explanation of free trade than Adam Smith, Hayek and Milton Friedman could ever do. Jim tells it like it is, without the baggage of fairy tale ideology. This book should be a staple on an MBA, it traverses the pulp genre of crime to highlight how "trade" and greed become converted into crime and eventually murder.
It is profusely rich in detail and may be off putting to those who just want their "kicks" imagining they are the gangsta man with a stick. This book is marketed as pulp but instead tells a far more vibrant story.
Not as macabre as Pop 1280, Killer Inside Me or Grifters but far better than standard crime fayre whodunnit produce, the bread and butter of this genre. You know, the good detective setting the world to rights through....errr... detection although an element of this pipes away in the background.
Double crossing, double dealing blows across the prairie of barren minds whilst love withers on the vine after a brief flowering in spring. Jim introduces a kaleidoscope of elements into the plot, such as revenge for institutional violence, the protagonist a killer his apeothesis the insurance man his mirror double, good and strangely capitalist evil. Jim still had a modicum of morality when he wrote this book but don't let that put you off.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Details of movie theater trade most intriguing
8 Sep 1997
Format:Paperback
Thompson's tale of fraud, murder, and adultery is
unremarkable (compared to Thompson's other works) except in it's presentation of the politics of a small town. Most of all, the presentation of Joe Wilmer's job as an owner of a first-run movie theater and his dealings with the union is fascinating. This is a novel that could have only been written by Jim Thompson.
unremarkable (compared to Thompson's other works) except in it's presentation of the politics of a small town. Most of all, the presentation of Joe Wilmer's job as an owner of a first-run movie theater and his dealings with the union is fascinating. This is a novel that could have only been written by Jim Thompson.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Reviewed By Alan Gerrard
2 April 1998
Format:Paperback
This novel is Jim Thompson at his best. A tale of small town fraud, murder, lies and adultery. Joe Wilmot is a part-owner of a small movie house with a passion for conning his employees and talking down the unions. He is a man with it all sewn up, an arrogant man with a deadly fraud in mind. But the final twist in the form of his mistress and a tenacious insurance investigator called Appleton, brings this powerful tale of suspense to a shuddering, disturbing conclusion. Very similar in places to Double Indeminity, but still Thompson at his best.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Touch confusing at times but scary
26 Mar 2006
Format:Paperback
I find that Jim Thompson's novels sometimes have confusing dialogue that throws the reader off trying to work out what was meant.
Originally I thought that this was just a case of the author not being clear enough but the more I read Thompson, the more I get the feeling that he intentionally sought to avoid clarity as this leads the reader to think about the dialogue themselves and with the elements of fear prevalent throughout his books, it is hoped that the reader adds to the fear by their opinions on what was said.
In this book (one of Thompson's earliest), he goes a little bit too indepth into the workings of the 1940's cinema houses but it is an interesting read. As with a lot of his work, the book boils down to the element of lack of trust between two people who (supposedly) love each other.
This is a scary novel and well worth reading.
Originally I thought that this was just a case of the author not being clear enough but the more I read Thompson, the more I get the feeling that he intentionally sought to avoid clarity as this leads the reader to think about the dialogue themselves and with the elements of fear prevalent throughout his books, it is hoped that the reader adds to the fear by their opinions on what was said.
In this book (one of Thompson's earliest), he goes a little bit too indepth into the workings of the 1940's cinema houses but it is an interesting read. As with a lot of his work, the book boils down to the element of lack of trust between two people who (supposedly) love each other.
This is a scary novel and well worth reading.
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