The Kill-Off (novel)

The Kill-Off
	First edition
Author	Jim Thompson
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Crime fiction
Publisher	Lion Books
Publication date	1957

Last updated February 27, 2019

The Kill-Off is an American crime novel by Jim Thompson first published in 1957, and reprinted by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard in 1999. The novel is a bleak tale of murder in a small, dying resort town being torn apart by gossip, racism, incest (actual or alleged), alcoholism and financial difficulties. It was adapted into a film in 1990.^[1]^[2]

Crime fiction genre of fiction focusing on crime

Crime fiction is a literary genre that fictionalises crimes, their detection, criminals, and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including detective fiction, courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the court room. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre.

James Myers Thompson was an American author and screenwriter, known for his hardboiled crime fiction.

Black Lizard was an American book publisher. A division of the Creative Arts Book Company of Berkeley, California, Black Lizard specialized in reprinting forgotten crime fiction and noir fiction writers and novels originally released between the 1930s and the 1960s, many of which are now acknowledged as classics of their genres.

Plot introduction

The Kill-Off relates the events leading up to the inevitable murder of Luane Devore, a hypochondriac hated in the seaside town of Manduwoc for her malicious gossip. Each chapter provides a partial first person account from a different character, all of whom are unreliable, to an unidentified audience. The result is a sprawling network of possibilities and suspicions with no ultimately trustworthy account.

A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a narrator relays events from their own point of view using the first person i.e. "I" or "we", etc. It may be narrated by a first person protagonist, first person re-teller, first person witness, or first person peripheral. A classic example of a first person protagonist narrator is Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847), in which the title character is also the narrator telling her own story, "I could not unlove him now, merely because I found that he had ceased to notice me".

An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. While unreliable narrators are almost by definition first-person narrators, arguments have been made for the existence of unreliable second- and third-person narrators, especially within the context of film and television, although sometimes also in literature.

Plot summary

Manduwoc, a small seaside resort town (located "a few hours train-ride from New York City" (6)) has been suffering financially from gradual loss of its tourist trade, and morally from gossip spread by Luane Devore about the seedy activities of the town's inhabitants. Before the murder even happens, numerous characters are viewed as potential suspects, notably the psychotic Bobbie Ashton, whose future was ruined when Luane revealed him as the bastard offspring of a mixed-race relation. Also involved in the potential crime is the suspected hoard of money Luane keeps from her husband Ralph's earnings. When finally Luane is found dead, having fallen down a flight of stairs, the characters scramble to establish their alibis. Ultimately local businessman Pete Pavlov confesses to unintentionally having pushed Luane down the stairs during a confrontation, although he suspects that Luane did not die immediately but was killed by a third person.

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States and thus also in the state of New York. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km²), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the traveller's country. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes".

Psychosis is an abnormal condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not. Symptoms may include false beliefs (delusions) and seeing or hearing things that others do not see or hear (hallucinations). Other symptoms may include incoherent speech and behavior that is inappropriate for the situation. There may also be sleep problems, social withdrawal, lack of motivation, and difficulties carrying out daily activities.

Characters

Luane Devore A paranoid hypochondriac who keeps to her room while spreading malicious rumors (some of which may be true) about the locals.
Ralph Devore Luane's younger, good-looking and hard-working husband, he hoards the money he makes working odd jobs, although Luane keeps control of it. He falls in love with Danny Lee, and struggles to find a way to get his money and to separate from Luane. He is rumored to be Luane's son as well as her husband.
Dr. Jim Ashton The local doctor, he moved to Manduwoc to conceal his sexual and intellectual relationship with Hattie, a Negro woman who bore his son Bobbie.
Bobbie Ashton Bright and outwardly good natured, Bobbie conceals (to all but his parents and girlfriend) a psychotic character resulting in part from his parents' illegitimate relationship and his sexual desire for his mother.
Hattie Dr. Ashton's mistress and housekeeper, she fell in love with Ashton from gratitude for his benevolence and his intellectual attention, but was cast off when her pregnancy (and refusal to have an abortion) led to his professional disgrace. She lives in fear of Bobbie.
Pete Pavlov Local contractor facing bankruptcy because of Manduwoc's decline. Almost universally hated and distrusted, Pavlov is at bottom an honest man whose hateful attitude arose in response to having been swindled by Luane's father.
Myra Pavlov Pete Pavlov's daughter and Bobbie Ashton's girlfriend, she lacks personality and will power. She lives in fear of her father and allows herself to be abused by Bobbie. She was forced into a drug addiction by Bobbie, although she does not mention this in her narrative.
Danny Lee A reluctant prostitute turned singer, she is brought to Manduwoc by Rags McGuire. She falls in love with Ralph Devore.
Rags McGuire A famous jazz musician fallen on hard times because of his unwillingness to adopt to popular musical trends. He lives in denial of the death of his two sons, and the disfigurement of his wife, in an auto accident.
Kossmeyer Luane's lawyer, prone to anger.
Henry Clay Williams Local prosecutor, ambitious but dull-witted. His position is threatened by local rumor that he has an incestuous relationship with his sister.
Marmaduke "Goofy" Gannder Town drunk and madman, he prowls through the town looking for booze.

Paranoia is an instinct or thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. Paranoia is distinct from phobias, which also involve irrational fear, but usually no blame. Making false accusations and the general distrust of others also frequently accompany paranoia. For example, an incident most people would view as an accident or coincidence, a paranoid person might believe was intentional. Paranoia is a central symptom of psychosis.

Negro is a dated term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Negroid heritage. The term can be construed as offensive, inoffensive, or completely neutral, largely depending on the region where it is used. It has various equivalents in other languages of Europe.

Abortion is the ending of pregnancy due to removing an embryo or fetus before it can survive outside the uterus. An abortion that occurs spontaneously is also known as a miscarriage. When deliberate steps are taken to end a pregnancy, it is called an induced abortion, or less frequently an "induced miscarriage". The word abortion is often used to mean only induced abortions. A similar procedure after the fetus could potentially survive outside the womb is known as a "late termination of pregnancy" or less accurately as a "late term abortion".

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The Kill-Off was made into a film in 1990 directed by Maggie Greenwald.

<i>The Kill-Off</i> 1990 film by Maggie Greenwald

The Kill-Off is a 1990 neo-noir written and directed by Maggie Greenwald, based on a 1957 novel of the same name by Jim Thompson. It was an independent film, produced by Lydia Dean Pilcher and shot by Declan Quinn.

Maggie Greenwald is an American filmmaker.

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References

↑ David Geffner (November–December 2009). "Soul of a Writer". Humanities .
↑ Thompson, Jim. The Kill-Off. New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 1999

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[1] David Geffner (November–December 2009). "Soul of a Writer". Humanities .

[2] Thompson, Jim. The Kill-Off. New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 1999