I had no idea there were american authors from this era writing stuff worth reading ( )

William Collins, rubio, muy guapo, bastante fuerte, ágil. Ligeras o nulas tendencias criminales, dependiendo de los factores ambientales. Ligeras y múltiples neurosis. Psicosis, Korsakoff inducido por shock; agravado por preocupaciones. Tratamiento: reposo absoluto, tranquilidad, alimentación y ambiente saludables. Collins es amistoso, educado, paciente, pero puede transformarse en peligroso si se le provoca...

Doc goldman, who is having lunch and a cafe where kid Collins got drunk and stumbled into his booth, tries to help collie.
2014, Paperback, Mulholland Books
P.33-4:
" 'I wish I could help you myself, but I just don't have the time and the money. I can only do so much, and I'm already --'
'I'll tell you what I might do,' I broke in. 'Maybe I could get a commitment in this state.'
'A non-resident?' He laughed briefly. 'Not that it would mean much if you were resident. Sometimes, Collins, sometimes I think they take them in the front door here and lead them right on out the back.'
'Yes, sir. I guess it's pretty much that way everywhere.'
'they can't get the money to operate on. There's money for highways and swimming pools and football stadiums. For everything but the most important things. And then people wonder. They wonder why, when some terrible tragedy takes place, that --...' "

Collins is supposed to kidnap little Charles Vanderventer III; he's the Patsy for Uncle Bud and Fay. They think because he's got mental illness, that he's a fool: they set him up to kidnap the kid, and then they'll take the ransom money, leaving him with the problem.
People often underestimate people with mental illness. Collie purposely picks up the wrong kid from the playground, one who looks a bit like Charles vandeventer III. But this little kid is wise is wise to the ways of the world. He pulls out a cigarette and smokes it, while he talks to Collie. Faye and Uncle Bud drive up, and just as Collie planned it, they freak out when they see him with the wrong kid.
P.114-5:
"... And if they really planned on having him dead, and if I wouldn't go along with the plan..
maybe. If. If and maybe.
How the hell was I going to know? How could you know what people would do if they go in on a deal like this one? I made myself stop thinking about it. My head just wouldn't take it anymore, all that chasing around and around. So I started thinking about the little boy. Not the one we had, Charles vanderventer iii, but the first one. That little kid who was heading for Paris tonight.
I wonder if he meant what he kind of seemed to mean. Whether, you know, he'd been wise to what I was doing and had deliberately let me get away with it.
I guess he hadn't. It was hard to be sure -- he was such a sharp, fast-talking youngster -- but I guess he hadn't. I mean, he just couldn't have! No kid would have felt like that, felt that another kid would be better off kidnapped.
I turned the radio on low. The newscaster was just winding up his last broadcast for the night:
'...no further developments in the Vanderventer case at this time. And now a few words about that plane disaster I mentioned a moment ago. The deluxe transatlantic airliner crashed at LaGuardia airport, shortly after 11:00 tonight, when two of its motors failed simultaneously during the takeoff. All of the crew and all but three of the passengers were killed. Among the fatalities was 10-year-old Jacques flannagan, son of motion picture actor Howard Flannagan of hollywood, and Margot Flanagan Wentworth D'Arcy Holmes of Paris and london. In accordance with their divorce agreement, the boy spent 6 months a year with each parent. He had left this city earlier tonight, following a brief visit with his grandmother...' "

William 'Kid' Collins sacrifices himself for Charles Vanderventer iii. He and the boy and Fay get away from the train station where Uncle Bud and Bert are killed by the police, when they go to pick up the ransom money. Collie let's Fay know that he was wise to her and Uncle Bud all along, but he rubs it in just a little. He can't avoid hurting her a little, after all that she's hurt him:
P.193:
"I laughed, cutting her off. 'I really had you fooled, didn't i? Well, I guess I should, all the practice I've had. I started in almost 15 years ago - I was up for a murder rap, see, and it was the only thing I could think of. So I went into the act, and it got me out from under. And then I went into the army, and it got me out of that. It looked like such a sweet deal that I started working the act full time.'
'What act?' she said. 'W-What are you saying?'
'this crazy stuff.' I laughed again. 'Hell, it's better than a pension. I could just roam around doing what I pleased -- acting stupid, and cracking down when people fell for it. Then, whenever I got tired, I'd just turn in at some institution for a while. Those places are pretty swell, you know; just like a high class country club. A swell private room and anything you want to eat. Hell, you never tasted anything like it! And you ought to see how people knock themselves out to wait on you. Why, I was in one place where they had a nurse for each patient. Real pretty ones, to keep you cheered up and feeling good...' "

This is one of my favorite Jim Thompson novels. So many of them have disgusting misogynistic characters in them so that it's hard to swallow them. This was misogynistic too, but I liked the way he portrayed mental illness in this book. This hits close to home.




( )

Amazing. Portrait of a mentally unstable young boxer - Collie (Collins) - who breaks out of an institution, hits the road and lands with a drunken, iffy gal at a bar and her male friend / loser ex-cop. Together they pull off a kidnapping of a wealthy kid but Collie realizes he is being setup and begins a complex set of tricks / double crosses with his two partners. Ultimately veers into heavy sentimentality but it's pretty satisfying. Loved the milieu of the three of them jibing at each other each so far apart from each other but also supposedly in it together. ( )

After Dark, My Sweet is a 1955 American crime novel written by Jim Thompson. William Collins is a former boxer now drifter who has broken out of a mental hospital. In a roadhouse he meets a woman who in turn introduces him to her “Uncle” Bud. They lure him into joining them in the kidnapping of a young boy from a wealthyfamily. Collins is neurotic, jumpy and paranoid but, it appears, with good reason. Has he been brought into this to become the fall guy and are they planning on ever returning the child?

Dark and gritty, filled with completely unredeemable characters, After Dark, My Sweet is short, concise and highly readable. Collins is an unreliable narrator and his paranoia and prevalence for violence keeps the reader on edge with the knowledge that this story will not end well. Awash in alcohol and double crosses this kidnap-gone-wrong tale is an excellent noir from one of it’s masters. ( )