SAVAGE NIGHT is Jim Thompson on simmer. Some dishes are best cooked on low. However, for much of the first half of this book I kept wanting to check if the heat was on at all. All the usual elements are there: depraved souls grasping at the scraps of the good life while mired in desperation. The usual wondering of who is up to what and just what are they capable of is muted by characters drawn without much gusto and a story that seems to meander. The main character spends this part of the book waiting for instructions for a job he doesn’t want—but nothing else seems to be happening either. But then the last third of the book kicks in. As if everyone smells blood in the air there is agitation and the characters come alive and start to move. Suddenly Thompson has the book by the throat and squeezes out a brilliant ending. I was startled that after pushing through much of the book hoping it would end soon to find that I had one of my favorite Thompson endings before my eyes. Maybe one of my favorite endings period. It is reminiscent of another Thompson favorite THE GETAWAY but is better in a way that is almost mystical--certainly surreal. The ending deserves a better beginning—but stay with it.