 The character of a sheriff who plays the fool but is in reality highly intelligent is used several times by Thompson.Sometimes, as in this novel and "The Killer Inside Me", the sheriff is a psychopath.In the novels "Wild Town" and "The Transgressors", the sheriff is heroic, a highly intelligent man who was forced by circumstances to take a job that didn't allow him to take full advantage of his abilities and who plays at being a clown to fit in to his role and to manipulate people for altruistic ends.