Double Indemnity - James M. Cain

The basic story of James M Cain's novella is pretty basic but has proved incredibly influential over the years. Car Insurance agent Walter Huff falls for Phyllis Nirdlinger a married woman who wants her husband dead. Whilst talking about car insurance during a cold call at Mrs. Nirdlinger's house she asks him about life insurance for her husband. In spite of his basic instincts, Walter allows himself to be seduced into helping the femme fatale into killing her husband for the insurance money. But things never go quite as well as they seem in books like this... The book was based on an actual murder case and was reworked into The Postman Always Rings Twice as ...  Read the complete review

Introduction I seem to be in a bit of a 'noir' phase at the moment. I recently read The Postman Always Rings Twice by the same author and have just started reading Raymond Chandler, both of whom have had films made of their books that have helped define the 'film noir' genre. I can see why Cain's work also belongs to this genre, but there are major differences between his work and Chandler's; primarily that Cain's books are not quite so depressing. There is a disadvantage to reading this book after The Postman - for me, that was one of the best novels I have read in a long time - and this was bound to not quite meet the same standards. Still, it was an excellent ...  Read the complete review