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The Criminal
Jim Thompson Book Review

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Plot Summary of The Criminal
"THE CRIMINAL is a book written by Jim Thompson in 1953.

14 chapters and 9 different points of view. A teenage girl has been raped and murdered and the main suspect is Bobby, a teenager living next to the victim's house. A lawyer tries to help Bobby who, harrassed by the prosecutor Clinton, has signed a confession in order to be left in peace. Meanwhile, his mother struggles against depression, his father has a hard time with his boss and the local newspapers wants him to be condemned.

A masterpiece."

Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar

Review Analysis of The Criminal
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 50%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 10%




Tone of story - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
How difficult to spot villain? - Story partially from villain's perspective
Time/era of story: - 1930's-1950's
What % of story relates directly to the mystery, not the subplot? - 30%
Special suspect? - best friend
Misc. Murder Plotlets - character killed during/after sexing - Proving innocence of very obvious suspect
Kind of investigator - skilled citizen investigator
Any non-mystery subplot? - life in that culture
Legal Thriller Yes
Legal Plotlets - finding out whether someone is really guilty
Crime Thriller Yes
Mostly a criminal POV story Yes
Murder Mystery (killer unknown) Yes

Main Character
Gender - Male
Profession/status: - student
Age: - a teen
Eccentric/Mental: Yes
Eccentric: - emotionally unstable - wild
How much violence does he/she use? - none
Ethnicity/Race - White/American
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - a lawyer creature
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - a little/some
Motive of antagonist - power
The antagonists are: - lawyer creatures
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
United States Yes
The US: - Midwest
Forest? Yes
Misc setting - prison

Style
Person - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - generic/vague references to death/punishment
How many deaths? - 1
Sex Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references - descript of kissing - rape (yeech!)
Amount of dialog - significantly more descript than dialog
Most similar books to The Criminal
Dig Deep for Murder by Kate Kingsbury
The Confession by Olen Steinhauer
The Affair of the 39 Cufflinks by James Anderson
A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh and Dorothy L. Sayers
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie


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