William "Kid" Collins was once a respected boxer. Now he's a drifter, on the run
after escaping from a mental institution.
One afternoon he meets Fay, a beaut
iful young widow. She is smart and decent--at least when she's sober.
Soon Col
lins finds himself involved in a kidnapping scheme that goes drastically wrong a
lmost before it even begins. Because the kid they've picked up isn't like other
kids: he's diabetic and without insulin, he'll die. Not the safest situation for
Collins, a man for whom stress and violence have long gone hand-in-hand.
"Aft
er Dark, My Sweet" once again displays Jim Thompson as the undisputed master of
American noir. The basis of James Foley's critically acclaimed film of the same
name, with the sweep of an epic tragedy, Thompson's classic limns the dangerous
territory of honest people all-too-easily sucked into wickedness, with no way ou
t but down.
