Nothing More Than Murder

Joe Wilmot can't stand his wife Elizabeth. But he sure loves her movie theater. It's a modest establishment in a beat-down town—but Joe has the run of the place, and inside its walls, he's king. Without the theater, he'd be sunk. Without his leadership, the theater would close in a heartbeat. If it isn't the life Joe imagined for himself, at the very least, it's livable.

Everything changes when Joe falls for the housemaid, and the two can't keep it a secret from Elizabeth. Elizabeth won't leave Joe the theater unless he provides for her . . . but he's put all his money into the show house.

Elizabeth and Joe's only hope are the life insurance policies they've taken out on each other. If one of them were to be presumed dead, they'd have more than enough money to solve all their problems . . .

In this incisive foray into the dark dealings of the mid-20th century movie industry, Jim Thompson lives up to his reputation as "the master of the American groin-kick novel" ( Vanity Fair).

Praise for Jim Thompson

"The best suspense writer going, bar none." ― The New York Times

"The most hard-boiled of all the American writers of crime fiction." ― Chicago Tribune

"If Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Cornell Woolrich would have joined together in some ungodly union and produced a literary offspring, Jim Thompson would be it . . . His work . . . casts a dazzling light on the human condition." ― The Washington Post