Thompson wrote at a time when his works could easily be compared to those of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. But while their use of detective and crime plots placed them in the same class, Thompson's emphasis upon the psychological over the physical sets him apart. What one critic terms an "anti-social" streak in Thompson renders his characterizations of psychotics and the maladjusted realistic and disturbing. This rare quality has appeared infrequently such as in the writing of Charles Bukowski.