The Grifters - Jim Thompson

Here we are again, courtesy of the Waterstones summer sale, another “Crime Masterwork”. This series has been selected by critics and authors as the best crime novels around, ones which should never be out of print - their spines are ugly, but their covers are nice. I'd thought about Jim Thompson for a while; I’d seen the film so went for the Grifters as a safe way in.

Though he is now a cult figure, when Thompson died none of his books were in print. He wrote quickly, and you can tell, just about: sometimes there is an odd turn of phrase, something you feel he would have changed if he'd gone over and over his manuscript. But this also gives the novel its vibrancy and interest. You notice Thompson’s writing and syntax; his writing is more conspicuous than a Cain or Hammett.

Thankfully the characters are scum-bags - each working an angle and out for themselves. It’s a book about con-men and women, and how bad can that possibly be? It doesn’t quite work, and having seen the film first, the ending was a bit spoilt for me, but con-men, people, con-men!