Order of Jim Thompson Books

Order of Jim Thompson Books


Jim Thompson (1906-1977) was an American author of hardboiled crime fiction. Although he was praised by critics during his lifetime, Thompson gained little commercial success in comparison. However, his novels were re-published in the 80s under the Black Lizard imprint, leading to him receiving more popularity posthumously. Several of Thompson’s novels have been adapted to film, including The Getaway and The Grifters.

Jim Thompson made his literary debut in 1942 with Now and On Earth. Below is a list of Jim Thompson’s books in order of when they were originally released:

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Now and on Earth

(1942)

Heed the Thunder

(1946)

Nothing More Than Murder / Murder at the Bijou

(1949)

Cropper’s Cabin / Sharecropper Hell

(1952)

The Killer Inside Me

(1952)

Bad Boy

(1953)

The Criminal

(1953)

Recoil

(1953)

The Alcoholics

(1953)

Savage Night

(1953)

The Golden Gizmo

(1954)

A Swell-Looking Babe

(1954)

The Nothing Man

(1954)

A Hell of a Woman

(1954)

Roughneck

(1954)

King Blood

(1954)

After Dark, My Sweet

(1955)

The Kill-Off

(1957)

Flint (As: Gil Dodge)

(1957)

Wild Town

(1957)

The Getaway

(1958)

The Transgressors

(1961)

The Grifters

(1963)

Pop. 1280

(1964)

Texas by the Tail

(1965)

South of Heaven

(1967)

Ironside

(1967)

The Undefeated

(1969)

Nothing But a Man

(1970)

Child of Rage

(1972)

The Cellini Chalice

(1988)

The Rip-Off

(1989)

Publication Order of Collections

ireworks: The Lost Writings

(1988)

Publication Order of Anthologies

City Sleuths and Tough Guys

(1989)

Murder Plus

(1992)

First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers

(1994)

Pulp Frictions: Hardboiled Stories

(1996)

The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction

(2002)

Robots

(2008)

Notes: Heed the Thunder was also published as Sins of the Fathers. The Golden Gizmo was also published as The Golden Sinner.