Heed the Thunder

Jim Thomson was born in 1907 in the frontier territory of Oklahoma (before it became a state) and more than anything his crime novels evoke the vivid image of an especially savage and lawless version of the region. Most of his books are set in Oklahoma, Nebraska, or Texas, and they usually involve amoral sociopaths who murder because their victims got in the way. Thompson’s killers are small-time thieves, corrupt sheriffs, or escaped lunatics, and while they typically understand the difference between right and wrong, they resort to crime because they are operating in a society with few moral or legal restraints.

Thompson’s work was mostly overlooked and unreviewed during his lifetime (although his wife claims that shortly before his death he said, “Just you wait. I’ll become famous after I’m dead about ten years.”), and his books were written quickly out of a desperate need for money. While they have a strong sense of place and at times electric prose, his carelessness often comes through in the form of sloppy plots and unfinished writing. But his best books are bleak noir masterpieces, with memorable characters and a grim and surreal vision of the American frontier.

Heed the Thunder, Thompson’s second book, is a partly-autobiographical populist epic set in a small Nebraska town. The book is badly written, no other way to put it, but it is full of energy. Already Thompson has created an extraordinary atmosphere in his off-kilter depiction of small-town American life.