Jim Thompson "The Alcoholics" (1953) ***

Jim Thompson's The Alcoholics (1953) is a short novel about a clinic called "El Healtho" in Los Angeles. At the heart of the book is Dr. Peter Murphy, who desperately wants to keep his clinic open—despite not having the money to—because he truly cares about curing his patients and he also doesn't want to be a failure. The characters that make up El Healtho are diverse and amusing (and this is one of Thompson's funniest novels) but I would definitely classify this book as one of Thompson's lesser works. Of course, lesser works by Jim Thompson are still very entertaining.