Wild Town
Read by Kevin T. Collins
Jim Thompson

Hachette Audio
January 16, 2012 / ASIN: B006YEJVJM
Mystery/Noir / Audiobook (Unabridged)/ 7 hours, 40 minutes
Amazon

Reviewed by Jo Rogers

In Wild Town, Thompson revisits the area in Texas he introduced us to in The Killer Inside Me. He also resurrects the character of Lou Ford, the deputy sheriff whom we met in The Killer Inside Me.

The story centers around David “Bugs” McKenna, a young man who was in trouble more often than not. He couldn’t seem to help doing the wrong thing at the right time or vice versa. He’d gone to prison, and had just gotten out of the last of the three county jails he’d been in since he’d gotten out of the state pen. His biggest problem was his mouth, which was unarguably a loose cannon with a sight firmly fixed on his foot.

When he landed in Ragtown, an oil boomtown gone bust, McKenna knew he had to stay out of trouble. So, when Deputy Lou Ford offered to help McKenna find a job, McKenna felt he had to accept the offer. Now, he owed Ford a favor, and that might not be a good thing. But he now had a job as house detective for the Hanlon Hotel to find out who was stealing from the hotel.

Wild Town is a story typical of a lot of small-town areas in Texas and Oklahoma. They are easily corrupted and all but impossible to clean up. The plot is a dark thriller that pulls you in fast and never lets you go. The language, while containing some profanity, isn’t riddled with it, as some of Thompson’s books are. The sex is suggested, not detailed. All in all, the book is well done. Listen to Wild Townand enjoy.

The Killer Inside Me [review]

Reviewer's Notes: Contains violence, profanity, sexual situations