Jim Thompson Livres

Quand on mesure un mètre cinquante avec des talonnettes, qu'on parait dix-sept ans au lieu des trente qu'on croit avoir, qu'on est presque aveugle et en train de crever de tuberculose, on a du mal à se faire prendre au sérieux. Mais ce n'est sûrement pas par hasard si c'est à vous qu'on offre 30 000 dollars pour descendre un mafioso trop bavard. Et ce n'est pas par hasard non plus que deux superbes filles vous tombent dans les bras, même si l'une d'elles souffre d'une infirmité sur laquelle vous aimeriez bien en savoir davantage...

'On demande femme seule, 40-45 ans, pour tenir maison de campagne. Pouvant porter uniforme taille 44. Bons gages. Écrire box n°...'. Cette annonce met le feu aux poudres. Il y a longtemps que le torchon brûle entre Joe Wilmot et sa femme Elisabeth. Cette dernière a introduit Carol sous son toit. Carol louche, elle a la démarche d'un canard et l'élégance d'un sac de pommes de terre. Telle est la première impression qu'elle fait à Joe. La deuxième est différente - 'C'est un miel, un sucre, un gâteau. Une vraie garce!'

Positive Coaching is jam packed with information for coaches in any sport. The book includes over 200 coaching recommendations on specific psychological, motivational, and behavioral situations. There is a special focus on the coach as storyteller -- 50 motivational stories can be used to develop strong communication with athletes.

In his characteristic style, Jim Thompson creates a world in which nothing is as it seems. With her stunning beauty and overwhelming charm, Manuela Aloe seemed like perfect girlfriend material, but when many strange things occur, Britt Rainstar begins to have second thoughts about his angelic--or demonic--love. If he can survive the attacks of a devil-possessed dog, a trigger-happy skeleton, and a mystery person who pushes his wheelchair down the stairs, then maybe Britt can escape Manuela and the evil that followers her.

Sheriff Nick Corey of Potts County, is a simple man, but when he is pushed to far he becomes a killer or makes other people do his killings

Frank "Dolly" Dillon has a job he hates, working sales and collections for Pay-E-Zee Stores, a wife named Joyce he can't stand, and an account balance that barely allows him to pay the bills each month. Working door-to-door one day, trying to eke money out of folk with even less of it than he has, Dolly crosses paths with a beautiful young woman named Mona Farrell. Mona's being forced by her aunt to do things she doesn't like, with men she doesn't know -- she wants out, any way she can get it. And to a man who wants nothing of what he has, Mona sure looks like something he actually does. Soon Dolly and Mona find themselves involved in a scheme of robbery, murder and mayhem that makes Dolly's blood run cold. As Dolly's plans begin to unravel, his mind soon follows. In A Hell of a Woman , Jim Thompson offers another arresting portrait of a deviant mind, in an ambitious crime novel that ranks among his best work.

William Collins is very handsome, very polite, and very friendly. He is also dangerous when aroused. Now Collins, a one-time boxer with a lethal "accident" in his past, has broken out of his fourth mental institution and met up with an affable con man and a highly arousing woman, whose plans for him include kidnapping, murder, and much, much worse.

War changed Clinton Brown. Permanently disfigured by a tragic military accident, he's struggling to find satisfaction from life as a rewrite man for Pacific City's Courier. Shame has led him to isolate himself from closest friends and even his estranged, still faithfully devoted wife, Ellen. Only the bottle keeps him company. But now Ellen has returned to Pacific City, and she's ready to do whatever it takes to get Brown back. Even if it means exposing his deepest secret -- a painful truth Brown would do anything to stop from coming to light. He'd kill a whole lot of people just to keep this one thing quiet -- and soon enough, the bodies just happen to start piling up around him

"When David 'Bugs' McKenna is hired as the house detective for his hotel by Mike Hanlon, the town's crippled millionaire, McKenna has hopes that he can leave his violent past behind. But the death of Dudley, the hotel auditor, the disapperace of $5,000 and the unwanted attentions of Lou Ford, the town's deputy sheriff, and Joyce, Hanlon's beautiful, young wife, means that McKenna is looking at more trouble than he can handle. And either a long, long, stretch in the State Pen or a longer stay in the town cemetery..." -- From back cover

The Manton looks like a respectable hotel. Dusty Rhodes looks like a selfless young man working as a bellhop. And the woman in 1004 looks like an angel. But sometimes looks can kill, as Jim Thompson demonstrates in this vision of the crime novel as gothic.

"I was going to catch hell whatever I did. I might as well try to enjoy myself."--Jim ThompsonAt thirteen Jim Thompson was learning how to smoke cigars and ogle burlesque girls under the tutelage of his profane grandfather. A few years later, he was bellhopping at a hotel in Fort Worth, where he supplemented his income peddling bootleg out of the package room. He shuddered out the DTs as a watchman on a West Texas oil pipeline. He outraged teachers, cheated mobsters, and almost got himself beaten to death by a homicidal sheriff's deputy. And somewhere along the way, Thompson became one of the greatest crime writers America has ever known.In this uproarious autobiographical tale, the author of After Dark, My Sweet and Pop. 1280 tells the story of his chaotic coming of age and reveals just where he acquired his encyclopedic knowledge of human misbehavior. Bad Boy is a bawdy, brawling book of reprobates--and an unfettered portrait of a writer growing up in the Southwest of the Roaring Twenties.

Old Lincoln Fargo has spent his life engaging in almost every vice imaginable--and his only regret is that he once stole a horse. His son Grant, a shiftless dandy with a resemblance to Edgar Allan Poe, is conducting an affair with his voluptuous and volatile cousin. And behind everyone's back, Grandmother Pearl has just signed the family property over to the Almighty.In the literature of the American prairie, few families are as brawling, as benighted, or as outrageously vital as the Fargos of Verdon, Nebraska. And when Jim Thompson chronicles their life and times, the result suggest Willa Cather steeped in rotguut--and armed with a .45.

Classic crime novel by acclaimed author Jim Thompson - 'the best suspense writer going, bar none' NEW YORK TIMES

Reissue of a true classic - 'One of the toughest crime novels ever' (Newsweek).

Luane Devore's days are numbered. All her neighbors in the declining seaside resort town of Manduwoc want her dead. Some, like her young husband Ralph and his girlfriend Danny, want the thousands of dollars she keeps hidden under the mattress she spends her days resting on. Others want her to stop her malicious gossip--some of which could ruin lives.

This fictionalized account retraces the author's zigzag path across the prairie states in the 1930s and 1940s as he consorts with corpses and con men, outruns railroad bulls, shakes down debtors, and writes labor history for the W.P.A.

In the 1920s the worst place you could be was in that part of Texas that some people call "South of Heaven," and the worst thing you could be doing there was laying a gas pipeline, along with six-hundred other hoboes, juice-heads, and jailbirds. But that's exactly what Tommy Burwell was doing, even though he wasn't smart enough to know better. Even though "South of Heaven" is another term for hell.Combining a tale of escalating savagery with a dead-eyed group portrait of men at the edge, Jim Thompson has produced a masterpiece of the American dissolute.

A teenage girl is raped and murdered. A father turns his back on his son. A vicious press lord turns justice into a carnival. A terrified boy is railroaded. In the twisted world of Jim Thompson, everyone is guilty, and the worst crimes are unpunishable.

Pat Cosgrove was a convict in the state's vilest prison, and Doc Luther gave him his freedom. Cosgrove had never been loved, and Luther gave him two mistresses--one of them the beautiful Mrs. Luther. Cosgrove owed Luther his life . . . and now Luther was going to collect.

Deputy Sheriff Lou Ford is a pillar of the community in his small Texas town, patient and thoughtful. Some people think he's a little slow and boring but that's the worst they say about him. But then nobody knows about what Lou calls his 'sickness'. It nearly got him put away when he was younger, but his adopted brother took the rap for that. Now the sickness that has been lying dormant for a while is about to surface again - and the consequences are brutal and devastating. Tense and suspenseful, THE KILLER INSIDE ME is a brilliantly sustained noir crime masterpiece.

For Tommy Carver, a short-tempered Okie sharecropper penned up in a sweltering cabin with a brutal father and a stepmother whose affection is anything but maternal, the question isn't when he'll explode, but who he'll take with him when he does. "My favorite crime novelist--often imitated but never duplicated."--Stephen King.

Mitch Corley seems like the luckiest guy around. But in truth, Corley's fast hands are the only gift fate's ever given him. He has a girlfriend with expensive tastes and a ruthless wife who refuses to become an "ex" without major compensation. He needs big money and he needs it fast. Because if his girlfriend finds out about the wife Corley neglected to mention, there's a good chance that Corley might not survive the night

Toddy Kent was born with a "gizmo" in his head--talent for finding easy money--but when Toddy's gift deserts him and he finds his wife murdered, he goes on the run from a sinister man and his hymn-singing doberman

When Tom Lord, a sheriff's deputy, accidentally kills Aaron McBride, he realizes that either the law or McBride's partners will be after him

Ike King, a man who built his empire with blood and violence, faces a career change when his sons threaten to take that empire away from him.

"San Diego in the years before World War II. James Dillon is barely scraping by working a menial job in manufacturing, trying to raise a family and support his elderly mother and sister Frankie at the same time. He drinks too hard--just like his father and nearly everyone in his extended family. With so many people crammed into one home, sometimes there's so much fighting he can barely stand it. But if James can survive the chaos of everyday life long enough, maybe--just maybe--there's a chance it'll all get better. NOW AND ON EARTH, Jim Thompson's first novel, draws on personal experience to depict a hardscrabble life in the sun-soaked streets of mid-20th century California. Chronicling the birth of a writer and the plight of the working man, it prefigures the American classics that followed, in a deeply-felt, autobiographical tale that shows a writer just coming into his own"-- ?c Provided by publisher.

Sometimes a man and woman love and hate each other in equal measure that they can neither stay together nor break apart. Some marriages can only end in murder and some murders only make the ties of love and hatred stronger. This book proves just that.

The three Jim Thompson restaurants in Bangkok were established to preserve the atmosphere that prevailed at dinner parties thrown by the legendary host. Dishes which used to grace these memorable parties can now be recreated in your own kitchen.

The story features a not-so-bright dog named Barf, who finds himself in a series of hilarious and chaotic situations. Accompanied by a man in a big hat and a little boy dressed in yellow, Barf embarks on wild adventures filled with laughter and unexpected challenges. Readers will enjoy Barf's antics and the lighthearted tone of this entertaining tale.

Joe Wilmot hat es geschafft. Sein Kleinstadtkino ist eines der angesehensten im ganzen Staat. Doch dann begeht er eine Dummheit und gerät in große Schwierigkeiten. Und plötzlich erinnern sie sich - all die unliebsamen Konkurrenten, die Joe damals mit höchst fragwürdigen Methoden kaltgestellt hat.

Roy Dillon es un pequeño estafador con grandes problemas. Las tres mujeres en su vida quieren tenerlo solo para ellas: Carol, la joven enfermera, desea casarse con él; Moira quiere que él progrese profesionalmente, mientras que su madre Lilly lo anima a alejarse del mundo del crimen. En algún momento, Roy deberá tomar una decisión…

Praktická kniha, kterou mohou trenéři využít, aby se svými sportovci dosahovali lepších výsledků nejen na hřišti. Kniha vysvětluje, proč je důležité napřít úsilí k dosahování mistrovství a jak mohou být samotné sportovní výsledky u dětí zrádné. Trenéři, rodiče i hráči dostávají do rukou doporučení, jak vybudovat zájem a vztah ke sportu na celý život. Budou-li trenéři tuto pozitivní motivaci pravidelně využívat, budou mít ve svých týmech zapálené a nadšené sportovce. Za knihou stojí i hvězdný basketbalový trenér Phil Jackson, který ji i opatřil předmluvou.

Wie viel kann ein Mensch einstecken? Ein Roman wie kein zweiter! Thompsons frühe autobiografische Tour de Force durch das Leben einer Unterschichtfamilie während der 1940er Jahre ist ein knallharter Trip durch die höllischen Abgründe der Armut. Sein Held, der Autor James "Dilly" Dillon, kämpft mit dem Alkohol, einer Schreibblockade und einem frustrierenden Job in der Flugzeugfabrik. Ein tödlicher Kreislauf, aus dem es kein Entrinnen gibt.

Inspector Kari Vaara of Helsinki is thrown into a case that sees a beautiful young woman murdered in an apparent sadomasochistic attack... But his investigation leads to him coming up against a wall of silence that implicates the very highest levels of power.

Ich liebe euren Hass! Seine Mutter ist eine weisse Prostituierte. Er ist Mulatte - weder schwarz noch weiss. Der achtzehnjährige Allen fühlt sich als Fremder in einer feindlichen Welt. Er weiss nicht, wo er hingehört, er weiss nur eins: Um seine Würde zu behalten, muss er bis zum Letzten kämpfen. Gegen seine Mutter, die ihn missbraucht, gegen seine Mitschüler, die ihn verachten. Nur die intelligente Josie steht auf Allens Seite. Doch Allen beschliesst, alle zu Fall zu bringen: vor allem die, die ihn lieben ... Jim Thompson wurde 1906 in Anadarko, Oklahoma, als James Myers Thompson geboren. Er begann früh zu trinken und schlug sich als Glücksspieler, Sprengstoffexperte, Ölarbeiter und Alkoholschmuggler durch. Obwohl er mit bereits 15 Jahren seine erste Kriminalgeschichte verkauft hatte, konnte er erst seit Beginn der fünfziger Jahre vom Schreiben leben. Für Hollywood verfasste er zahlreiche Drehbücher, u.a. für so namhafte Regisseure wie Stanley Kubrick. Thompson gilt als zentraler Vertreter des Noir-Genres. Er starb 1977 in Los Angeles, seine Asche wurde im Pazifischen Ozean verstreut.

David McKenna, von Jugend an herumgestossen und mit der Justiz auf Kollisionskurs (vgl. hierzu Thompsons autobiographischen Bericht "Bad Boy": ID 22/87) scheint endlich Glück zu haben; er wird als Hoteldetektiv engagiert, gerät aber sogleich in einen lebensgefährlichen Schlamassel. Der etwas naive Held hat Mühe, ein feingesponnenes Komplott zu durchschauen, folgt ständig falschen Spuren, und mit ihm plagt sich der Leser, bis am Schluss die komplizierte und konstruierte Lösung der Geschichte langatmig aufgedröselt wird. Der Roman (2 weitere Titel in dieser Nr.) erschien bereits 1984 bei Ullstein und kommt quasi als Anhängsel zu "Getaway" (in dieser Nr.) für grosse Krimibestände in Frage