{"product_id":"9780989671439","title":"Murder at the Bijou","description":"Murder at the Bijou (originally titled Nothing More Than Murder) is noir master Jim Thompson’s dizzying tale of deception, adultery, revenge, arson, and cold-blooded murder in Smalltown, U.S.A., Thompson’s favorite setting.  In this novel, Thompson’s first major success as a pulp fiction writer, Joe Wilmot, trying to go straight after a stretch in the pen, finds a movie house in a small crossroads that can use a helping hand and someone with half a brain for business.  The theater’s owner, Elizabeth, isn’t the smartest operator around – or is she?  Joe and the plain Jane Elizabeth decide  maybe it would be better for business if they got married.  Why not?  And then Carol shows up, a bit stale in the eye candy department but ready and willing to serve – in every way.    They’ve got insurance coverage on the movie house; their lives would all be better if the place maybe had an accident, a little fire.  But things can go very wrong.  And in Murder at the Bijou they do.    Fans of Jim Thompson will recognize the terse dialogue, plot twists and double-crosses, and a belief that nothing in the world in good, all of which makes Stephen King say that Jim Thompson is “My favorite crime novelist – often imitated but never duplicated.”","brand":"Chalk Line Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47118924218608,"sku":"9780989671439","price":5.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780989671439_p0.jpg?v=1763894041","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780989671439","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}