Jim Thompson plumbed the depths of human immorality, and that becomes more apparent when you read four of his darkest novels in one volume. Some much nihilism in one place. But he told a good story while doing it. Or four of them here.

The Getaway is difficult to read without comparing it to the classic film based on the book, but the story and characters, especially Doc McCoy, are strong. Thompson’s McCoy in the book is more nuanced than the film, and scarier for it. After bribing him out on bail, Doc’s wife Carol joins him on the run after a bank robbery. They run a gauntlet of murders, endure a couple of hellish hiding places, and end up in a living hell in Mexico, made for criminals just like them – as long as the money holds out.

The Killer Inside Me is the harrowing psychological story of an intelligent West Texas deputy who acts the bumbler and kills without compunction. In The Grifters, a mother and son are both con artists, but as the son is about to make a clean break things start to go bad for his mother. Of course it ends in tragedy.

In Pop. 1280 Nick Corey is the sheriff of Potts County, the smallest county in the state. All he knows is sheriffing and his only ambition is to keep the job as long as he can by doing as little as possible. Like the deputy in The Killer Inside Me he is a calculating psychopath playing a buffoon. With reelection uncertain Nick starts to address crime in his own way, and a lot of people die.

These are noirish, dark, morality tales where crime doesn’t really go unpunished. ( )