In The Criminal, Thompson allows no single character to act as protagonist.

Each character takes a turn presenting his or her viewpoint in first person, one chapter at a time. The book opens with narration by Allen Talbert, whose teen-aged son has been accused of raping and murdering a neighbor girl.

Talbert reveals a mediocre intellect, at best, as he alternates between reminiscence over the good old days when his son worshiped him and long diatribes against his boss. Stuck in an unpromising position selling ceramic tile, Talbert dreams, along with his wife Martha, of escaping the town and its condemnation of his family. They realize escape is impossible, because they have taken a second mortgage on their home to pay for Bobby's attorney bills. Talbert's struggle with ethics takes place on the job, where conditions are bad and growing worse. Of his work he says, "So you...