In between running the business, meetings, writing and preparing the next expeditions, I’ve been constantly on the move again in London, From E-W, N-S, writing while on trains, but mostly reading.

Some of the best stuff to read while moving on public transport is crime-noir fiction or hard-boiled as it’s often called. Some of the obvious names are of course James Ellroy, whose American Confidential is very good and testosterone driven. But if you want to shove a far thinner paperback in your coat pocket, I would recommend Jim Thompson.

His style at times feels a bit dated to me (the way he interjects with emotions in that free indirect style) but it does help to give greater psychological depth to his characters and it’s all part of the rawness that he brings to the genre. Sam Peckinpah’s The Getaway is totally different from the book, but the relationships between the characters is quite similar, although they tend to be more ruthless and brutal in Thompson’s novels than most film audiences would stomach from protagonists.

The strongest point for me is the sense that it’s all written by a man who really knew life on the street first hand, not through a DVD collection or books. Even when it concerns minor characters, there is great attention to detail and a clear sense of context of criminals and society.

The Getaway, The Killer Inside Me and Savage Night are the ones I’ve read, but more info on the man:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thompson_%28writer%29

I knew some of his work before, but didn’t realize until recently that he’d worked with Stanley Kubrick on a number of films or that so much of his work was adapted to film.

Anyway, check it out.

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