Jim Thompson "The Transgressors" (1961) ***1/2

Jim Thompson's The Transgressors (1961) is interesting based solely on the fact that its main character, Tom Lord, appears to be a variation of Lou Ford, a character who appeared in both Thompson's The Killer Inside Me (1952) and Wild Town (1957). Besides the similar name, Lord is also a deputy sheriff and also had a father who was a doctor (just like Ford). Not only that, but Lord's initial love interest is one Joyce Lakewood, quite a similar name to the similarly trampy Joyce Lakeland from Killer. Transgressors doesn't get into the head of its protagonist in the way that Killer did (Lord is not sadistic like Ford either), and it's not as good a novel, but it's a reliably pulpy yarn from America's "Dimestore Dostoevsky".