The Killer Inside Me

The Killer Inside Me is a 1952 novel by American writer Jim Thompson published by Fawcett Publications. In the introduction to the anthology Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s, it is described as "one of the most blistering and uncompromising crime novels ever written." Plot summary Lou Ford appears to be an unremarkable deputy sheriff in a small Texas town; beneath this facade, however, he is a cunning, depraved sociopath with sadistic sexual tastes. His main outlet for his dark urges is the relatively benign habit of deliberately needling people with clichés and platitudes despite their obvious boredom: "If there's anything worse than a bore," says Lou, "it's a corny bore." Despite having a steady girlfriend, schoolteacher Amy Stanton, Ford falls into a passionate, sadomasochistic relationship with a prostitute named Joyce Lakeland. He describes their affair as unlocking "the sickness" that has plagued him since adolescence, when he was sexually mistreated by a babysitter and went on to sexually abuse a little girl, a crime for which his elder foster brother Mike took the blame to spare Lou from prison. After serving a jail term, Mike died at a construction site. Lou blamed a local construction magnate, Chester Conway, for his death, suspecting he was murdered for refusing to help further Conway's schemes.