::AMAZON REVIEWS::

Double Indemnity
Although not published in book form until 1943, James M. Cain (1892 -1977) wrote "Double Indemnity" in 1936, just after his other short masterful noir novel "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1934) Both these novels became celebrated movies. I read the books together to try to get some understanding of Cain's art and of the noir genre.

As is Cain's earlier book, "Double Indemnity" is set in Los Angeles in the 1930s and is a tale of violence and murder heavily influenced by sex. Both books are told in the first person by a perpetrator of the crimes nearing the end of his life. The men in both books are seduced by a femme fatale who wishes to be rid of a husband.

There are differences in the books. The "Postman Always Rings Twice" involves people at the lower reaches of society, a wandering, penniless drifter together with a young frustrated woman married to an older man, "the Greek", who operates a run-down gas station and restaurant. The supporting characters also are drawn from low life. The book has a strong sense of place. The descriptions of the shabbier sections of Los Angeles and its environs are as important to the book as its story of lust and murder.

In contrast, "Double Indemnity" is far more psychological and probes deeper into the inner lives of its characters. The sense of place is less important that it is in "Postman". Furthermore, "Double Indemnity" involves crime and lust among the middle and upper classes rather than by those on the margins. The main character and narrator, Walter Huff, age 34, is a modestly successful insurance salesman. His victim, Nirdlinger, is a succesful oil and gas executive. The femme fatale is Nirdlinger's wife Phylis, in her early thirties. Phylis seduces Nirdlinger to sell her husband an accident insurance policy and to participate in murdering Nirdlinger. Because the policy pays a double indemnity for accidents occurring on a railroad, Huff and Phyllis stage a scenario under which Nirdlinger appears to lose his life in an accident on a passenger train.

Unlike "Postman", "Double Indemnity" has a subplot involving Nirdlinger's daughter from a previous marriage, Cora, age 19, and her boyfriend, Beniamino Sachetti, 26, a student working on his doctorate in chemistry. The book has strong themes of sexual jealousy as Sachetti appears to be involved both with Cora and with Cora's stepmother Phyllis. Huff too is motivated to the murder by his desire for Phyllis, but he develops an almost innocent love in the course of the story for Cora.

Insurance policies are important in "Postman" but even more so in this book, as Huff's company struggles to find a way out of paying the $50,000 double indemnity for Nirdlinger's apparent accident. The aging, jowly, shrewd and cynical claims adjuster, Keyes, finds a way of unravelling what appears to be a flawless crime.

The story is narrated in a taut, laconic style with moments of reflectiveness from Huff as he comes to understand himself and his fate. I did not find Huff an innocent or unwilling participant in the actions described in the book. Rather, he is on the lookout for the main chance and takes the initiative from the outset in proposing and planning the murder of Nirdlinger. Early in the book, Cain gives Huff a long and revealing soliloquy in which he compares his life as an insurance agent with that of a roulette croupier. He says "I lie awake night thinking up tricks, so I'll be ready for them when they come at me. And then one night I think up a trick, and get to thinking I could crook the wheel myself if I could only put a plant out there to put down my bet. That's all. When I met Phyllis, I met my plant." (pp23-24)

Huff also understands Phyllis early in their relationship. He quotes her: "There's something in me that loves Death." I think of myself as death, sometimes. in a scarlet shroud, floating through the night. I's so beautiful, then. And sad. And hungry to make the whole world happy, by taking them out where I am, into the night, away from all trouble, all unhappiness." (p. 18) As the novel unfolds, Huff learns that there were depths to Phylis' murderous, violent character of which he was unaware when the couple formed their plot to kill Nirdlinger.

The story unfolds with a great deal of tension and inner logic as the complex elements of the plots are pulled together. The book offers a tough-minded portrayal of the consequences of greed, hatred, and lust, but it offers a hint of the possibility of love as well.

I enjoyed getting to know both these early books of James Cain, "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Double Indemnity". Although sometimes patronized as "pulp" writing, these are serious, well-written novels worthy of a place in American literature.

Robin Friedman

Cain Kills With This One
Absolutely incredible! Cain writes a clean and crisp story containing multiple plot twists to keep you guessing. My first "crime/fiction" novel I've read in a while and it was well worth my time. The book is fairly small yet it still packs a huge wallop of detail and intensity. This is the kind of book that can draw you to be infatuated with that genre in which it came from. Those who read this will not be able to put it down until the last line of Cain's irresistible prose.

Fast-paced noir thriller
An insurance salesman is seduced by a femme fatale into helping murder her husband for the policy pay-off, and plots the "perfect" crime. However, little is as it seems, and things become almost Machiavellian as wheels within wheels are revealed over the course of the crime...

Although this book starts off slow, it quickly builds up speed and tension once things truly get under way re: the murder and (especially) the aftermath. Once I got "into" it, I couldn't put it down.

On the bright side, it's a neat little story (and apparently **loosely** inspired by real events!). The plot is tightly crafted, with new angles continuously introduced to keep the reader guessing, and is a fast-read.

On the down-beat, there are a few potential plot holes that were left open over the course of the story, though the plot goes on enough weird angles that it's debatable whether they would ever come up. Arguably, this is a story you're supposed to 'turn your mind off' with and let the investigators do the thinking, so maybe that's forgivable. My major complaint would be the ending: without giving too much away, it just wasn't satisfying or realistic. Again, others would quite likely be more forgiving.

Worth checking out.

It Always A "Dame", Right?
I am more familiar with the work of James M. Cain via the movies as the basis of such films as The Postman Always Rings Twice and one of the works under review here Double Indemnity. For classic noir films I like to read the works they are based on to see how true they are to the literary efforts. Thus, I picked up this book for Double Indemnity but along the way I got into the other two. The common theme here is the role of women in bringing a man down (or building him up, if that seems appropriate to her designs). You know the old Adam and Eve tale in the modern setting. If Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, Cain's near contemporaries, had the hard-boiled, no nonsense detective down Cain has the bewitching femme fatale and `gullible' smitten guy down in the same way. This little three story volume, moreover, has the virtue of an introduction by Cain himself where he essentially dismisses out of hand positive critical comments about the hard-boiled outlook on the world expressed in his work, his commanding sense of language and his deft craftsmanship with the twists and turns of a story. Ya, right.


Cain identifies Career in C Major as the story that he liked the best of the three presented here and the one that would hold up over time. I did not get that feeling mainly because the story line gets a little too bogged down by the narrator's efforts to become a male opera singer. The tension between his gratitude (if you can call it that) to his operatic paramour/muse and his catty, headstrong and over demanding wife (who also had musical ambitions) is what drives this little work. In the end, there is basically a Mexican stand-off between hubby and wife. I do not believe that either the theme or the moral hold up today. Let me point out that despite Cain's predilections for this little piece Double Indemnity, with a very much darker theme, is still remembered as a classic tale of murderous impulse. This one you can take or leave.

The Embezzler is, however, one you had better take, as its plot structure leads straight to the classics. This little sleeper of a story points to the fine twist and turns that Cain is rather noted for. The plot revolved around the complicity of a bank executive and the wife of a bank clerk to try to stave of family disaster (her's) by trying to "fix" the books of her philandering husband held in thrall by his fellow female employee, an accountant (go figure, right?). The twist and turns center, of course, around the attraction of the bank exec for the wronged wife who may, or may not be, on the up and up. Christ, this thing had me guessing for a while whether that exec was really going to take the tumble for a wrong "dame". Read this one. You will be glad.

I mentioned above that one of the things I want to read the original story of a film noir classic for is to see how close it is to the film version. Double Indemnity runs fairly close except as to the fates of the two lovers, if that is what they are. The plot here revolves around that old standard- life insurance- or rather more properly `death' insurance, for the insured. One hulky insurance agent meets one drop dead beautiful yoing wife of an insured older client. Said wife merely inquires about accident insurance for dear hubby. You know, he is in a dangerous business, producing oil in L.A. The rest is history- hubby is a goner. The double indemnity part? Oh, if you die in an accident on a train you get double. Get it? You will.

The core of the story goes to the compulsive nature of the actual murder once the wheels are set in motion, its cover-up and the falling out among thieves. Along the way we get an entanglement with the deceased insured lovely daughter, her `boyfriend' and enough duplicity to fill up the jails of 1930's California to capacity. No problem. Except the ending of this story doesn't match up with the film. Yes, the moral of both is that men (and women) must not do evil things to their fellows. Okay, but in the movie it is a straight proposition- the bad guys must pay back society for their crimes. They must die. In the book not only is that true but the bad guys had to feel guilt-ridden about it as well. So, instead of getting away with their nefarious deeds they must kill themselves. Moreover, as it turns, wifey didn't tell dear old insurance man that she had a little prior history of psychopathic behavior. So all of society's books are cleared on this one. Nice. I'll take the darker book ending, thank you.

excellent -- a definite no miss
I can't help it...reading through Cain's novel the voices in my head were those of Barbara Stanwyck, Fred McMurray and Edward G. Robinson.
Although this is a small book (128 p.) and a quick read, don't underestimate this little gem. It is perfectly written and packs an unexpected punch at the end. Highly recommended for anyone who likes noir fiction. And don't expect the movie ... Hollywood couldn't have possibly done it the way the author intended. A basic summary of the plot: Walter Huff is an insurance investigator who is able to smell a scam a mile away. But sadly, Walter isn't thinking with his brain when he meets Phyllis Nirdlinger, the wife of a customer. She wants to know about accident insurance; he knows without anyone even saying anything why she wants it. Walter is convinced that with his knowledge of the industry and how it works come paying out claims time that the two of them could plot the perfect murder and insurance scam. But the story's not over yet. During a period of time when the two have to cool their heels and avoid each other, Walter has time to sit back and think about things and realizes that there's more to the story here and that he must take some action before his company puts two and two together. That's the bare bones outline (I don't want to spoil the story). The book's ending is vastly different than that of the movie -- and I think more poetically just (if not a little strange). Cain's characterizations are well drawn and the writing is superb. A must for any fan of noir.