A Hell of a Woman

Jim Thompson & Larry Brown have at least one thing in common...happy endings and classic good guys are almost impossible to find in their books. In the hit or miss world of Jim Thompson novels this one certainly hits...hard! Hell Of A Woman is an ugly story that features characters with few, if any, redeeming qualities. This has surpassed The Killer Inside as my favorite Thompson novel. The suspense and surprise twists that books like The Alcoholics lack can be found here in spades. Thompson seems a little too at home in this setting of paranoia, sex & crime. Its one shortcoming is typical of Thompson stories...it does occasionally come unwravelled, though not often enough to matter. I honestly didn't know how this one was going to turn out. You have the general idea of what's going down, but you can never be sure who's going to fall and who's going to get away with it. Thompson is a master of this hard-boiled genre and this is surely a highlight in an up and down career. Curl up around an ashtray and enjoy!

I'd heard high-praise for Mr. Thompson's books--from Stephen King to James Ellroy--but it wasn't until I read A Hell of a Woman that I became a believer. It's not only dark, like you'd expect, but alive! The book gets inside your head and won't leave, even after you've finished the last page. Images you will never shake! Read it!

This novel deserves to be known as one of Thompson's best. Dolly Dillon may not appear to be as menacing as Lou Ford, but he is, if possible, more insane. Population 1280, Savage Night, The Nothing Man, After Dark, My Sweet, and The Killer Inside Me all feature 1st-person narrators with mental problems, but none of them have a problem like Dillon. Read to the end to see what I mean.

The story's narrator Dolly Dillon is so exquisitely creepy. A Hell of a Woman is the type of book that leaves you feeling a bit disturbed when you finish reading. A fabulous journey into the dark side of humanity. I can't wait to read another Jim Thompson novel.

I think this is one of Thompson's best books. He may use the basic Cain formula, but he takes us a lot further inside the mind of his narrator; in fact, a little too far for comfort.