Like many of Thompson's novels, After Dark, My Sweet is in the form of a first-person narrative. Like a few of his other novels, the narrator is telling the story after he has already died, a peculiar and surrealistic approach to narrative. This allows the narrator the emotional distance he seems to keep from himself. Even though he details his thoughts and emotions during the time span of the novel, Collins seems to be talking about someone else, so methodical is his voice. Death has not brought wisdom, however; he gropes for methods by which to analyze and describe the other characters of the book. His otherworldliness does not intrude into the story telling, yet the tone of removal from the scene remains distinct.

Others of Thompson's first person narrators who have died at end of the story they relate remain psychotic amoral killers. While Collins is diagnosed...