Jim Thompson, "After Dark, My Sweet"
I think I�m getting the general motif of Jim Thompson novels.
Take a low-level petty criminal, stick him in a situation with a dame and her partner who have their eyes on a big score, force them to work together even though they don�t really like one another and wait for a small amount of time so the individuals can scheme.
As the tension rises among the unlikely band of rogues, have the plan that is supposed to go off without hitch suddenly develop a shitload of hitches. Most important, NOBODY is to be trusted. Ever.
Funny thing is, it works. This is the fourth Thompson book I�ve read. None of them are alike. And they�re all pretty damn good. Like �The Grifters,� this has an ending that blew me away and it was something I didn�t see coming at all, but it wasn�t just tacked on to bring things to a close. All in all, it was a tightly packed, fast-moving story that I�m not sure deserves to be categorized in the schlocky �mystery� category.
The only mystery about this was why it�s titled �After Dark, My Sweet.�
And in case you�re wondering, nothing happened to me that I can relate this to, which is why this entry is so boring. Sorry.
