There are three main characters in After Dark, My Sweet: William Collins, known as Kid Collins during his boxing career; Fay, a woman Collins first meets in a bar who eventually becomes his love interest; and Uncle Bud, nobody's uncle, but a schemer who concocts a plan to make Fay and himself wealthy. Three other minor characters appear. Bert, the bartender, is the first person Collins meets. He unwittingly becomes involved in the kidnaping Bud plans and is shot and killed by the police when he is mistaken for Collins. Doc takes Collins in to live with him for a short while, and his voice remains the only voice of sanity throughout the novel. Sevenyear-old Charles Vanderventer III is the child Collins helps kidnap and the eventual catalyst for Collins' death and redemption. The book is narrated by Collins in a peculiar postmortem narrative which Thompson employed in...