King Blood (Armchair Detective Library)

By Jim Thompson

Book Overview

Ike King, a man who built his empire with blood and violence, faces a career change when his sons threaten to take that empire away from him. By the author of The Grifters and The Killer Inside Me. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1562870459
• ISBN13: 9781562870454
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Otto Penzler Books
• Length: 220 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Over-the-top raunchy fun

In the edition that I read, the foreword, written by Elmore Leonard, states "This book is terrible". Or something along those lines. Elmore Leonard really hated this book and reviewed it only resentfully on the orders of his publisher; Jim Thompson's agent hated it and most publishers refused to consider it. It IS a terrible book, but only in that it's such a cutting examination of an author's personal demons. If you have any appreciation for the works of Nick Cave, or favor Thompson's more gritty writings (such as the last 1/2 of "Pop. 1280"), you can't help but enjoy this crazed anarchy of sex and killing and obscenity. It's hardcore even by 21st Century standards....