After Dark, My Sweet

by Jim Thompson Narrated by Kevin T. Collins

Overview

A classic crime novel about a kidnapping scheme gone wrong*from Jim Thompson's, America's "Dimestore Dostoevsky."*

William "Kid" Collins was once a respected boxer. Now he's a drifter, on the run after escaping from a mental institution.

One afternoon he meets Fay, a beautiful young widow. She is smart and decent - at least when she's sober. Soon Collins finds himself involved in a kidnapping scheme that goes drastically wrong almost before it even begins. Because the kid they've picked up isn't like other kids: he's diabetic and without insulin, he'll die. Not the safest situation for Collins, a man for whom stress and violence have long gone hand-in-hand.

After Dark, My Sweet once again displays Jim Thompson as the undisputed master of American noir. The basis of James Foley's critically acclaimed film of the same name, with the sweep of an epic tragedy, Thompson's classic limns the dangerous territory of honest people all-too-easily sucked into wickedness, with no way out but down.

Editorial Reviews

JANUARY 2012 - AudioFile

Collie is described in his mental history file as “amiable, polite, and patient, but possibly very dangerous if aroused.” Narrator Kevin T. Collins’s plainspoken, almost folksy, delivery for this character is spot-on and adds to the tension of this psychological mystery. Collins’s handling of the other two main voices—those of Faye and Uncle Bud—is equally compelling. In particular, he imbues Uncle Bud, the sly huckster, with self-confidence and a slight Southern accent that gives a believable dimension to the character. As the story’s events go from bad to worse, Collins’s narration gets appropriately more and more agitated. Fans of Thompson’s dark pulp fiction will appreciate this performance. F.T. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

"The best suspense writer going, bar none."—The New York Times

"My favorite crime novelist-often imitated but never duplicated."—Stephen King

"If Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich would have joined together in some ungodly union and produced a literary offspring, Jim Thompson would be it...His work...casts a dazzling light on the human condition."—Washington Post

"Like Clint Eastwood's pictures it's the stuff for rednecks, truckers, failures, psychopaths and professors ... one of the finest American writers and the most frightening, [Thompson] is on best terms with the devil. Read Jim Thompson and take a tour of hell."—The New Republic

"The master of the American groin-kick novel."—Vanity Fair

"The most hard-boiled of all the American writers of crime fiction."—Chicago Tribune

JANUARY 2012 - AudioFile

Collie is described in his mental history file as “amiable, polite, and patient, but possibly very dangerous if aroused.” Narrator Kevin T. Collins’s plainspoken, almost folksy, delivery for this character is spot-on and adds to the tension of this psychological mystery. Collins’s handling of the other two main voices—those of Faye and Uncle Bud—is equally compelling. In particular, he imbues Uncle Bud, the sly huckster, with self-confidence and a slight Southern accent that gives a believable dimension to the character. As the story’s events go from bad to worse, Collins’s narration gets appropriately more and more agitated. Fans of Thompson’s dark pulp fiction will appreciate this performance. F.T. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173394842
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	11/01/2011
Edition description:	Unabridged

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