The Killer Inside Me, Jim Thompson. First Edition.

The Killer Inside Me, Jim Thompson First edition, paperback original, of Thompson’s defining noir novel, narrated by Lou Ford, an outwardly genial small-town Texas deputy sheriff concealing a calculating and profoundly violent inner life. Published without a preceding hardcover edition, The Killer Inside Me is a landmark of American crime fiction and Thompson’s most celebrated exploration of the criminal mind. New York: Lion Books, by arrangement with Non-Pareil Publishing Company, September 1952. Original pictorial wraps; pp. 160. Binding remains tight. Shelfwear, rubbing and creasing to wraps with faint discoloration to rear wrap. Pages toned as usual, else internally clean. Scarce.