Three Novels from the Bad Guy's Perspective

3books.jpgHere are three good novels I've read in the last year. All are somewhat similar in that the protagonist becomes a murderer.

Two of the books are told first-person by the killer, which is interesting. Jim Thompson's The Killer Inside Me (1952) is narrated by a sheriff who is also a psychopathic killer, able to kill without conscience. An insurance agent tells the story in James Cain's Double Indemnity (1936); he plans and carries out the murder of a woman's husband (with her as his accomplice).

Strangers on a Train, by Patricia Highsmith (1950), was made into an Alfred Hitchcock movie. This story is told second-person, but primarily from the viewpoint of a man who gets caught up in something he can't get out of.

In all three books, you watch events close in on the killers. This is especially interesting in the Thompson and Cain books, where the killer is telling the tale.

All three books are old, which means they are a lot cleaner than contemporary fare. But though I read plenty of current novels, I've not read one written from the point of view of the criminal himself.

Posted on April 3, 2007 04:08 PM|

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