I absolutely love Cain’s writing and stories! Great characters, interesting twists, stories that grab your attention the whole time. This one didn’t disappoint. I didn’t want to stop reading. The details are genius and the story kept me on edge. Great quick read! ( )

Noir at its best. ( )

3.5

Mostly tight and breezy; very easy to read. Read in preparation for a rewatch of the film, which I can't remember too well. The story is good, but it's mega heavy on the exposition toward the end, and the bleak climax felt a little out of place. The narration is efficient but there aren't that many lines that sparkle and crack in that classic noir way - I feel Chandler had a better handle on that. He co-wrote the screenplay for Wilder's adaptation, so maybe the film will come across a little spicier. ( )

P.18:
" 'please, Walter, don't let me do this. We can't. It's simply – insane.'
'yes, it's insane.'
'we're going to do it. I can feel it.'
'I too.'
'I haven't any reason. He treats me as well as a man can treat a woman. I don't love him, but he's never done anything to me.'
'but you're going to do it.'
'yes, God help me, I'm going to do it.'
She stopped crying and lay in my arms for a while without saying anything. Then she began to talk almost in a whisper.
'he's not happy. He'll be better off dead.'
'yeah?'
'that's not true, is it?'
'not from where he sits, I don't think.'
'I know it's not true. I tell myself it's not true. But there's something in me, I don't know what, maybe I'm crazy. But there's something in me that loves death. I think of myself as death, sometimes. In a Scarlet shroud, floating through the night. I'm 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...' "
Phyllis Nirdlinger wants to off her husband. It's her way of life, to hook up with people with money,find a way to kill them, and live off their money. She uses good looks to hook an insurance salesman into a scheme to get her husband's life insured for$50K (1930s L.A.) and then plan and carry out the perfect murder.
P.54:
"I lay there staring in the dark. Every now and then I would have a chill or something and start to tremble. Then that passed and I lay there, like a dope. Then I started to think. I tried not to, but it would creep up on me. I knew then what I had done. I had killed a man. I had killed a man to get a woman. I had put myself in her power, so there was one person in the world that could point a finger at me, and I would have to die. I had done all that for her, and I never wanted to see her again as long as I lived. That's all it takes, one drop of fear, to curdle love into hate."
With zesty planning, they carry it off. It's made to look like he falls off the observation platform of a train, tangled up in the crutches he was using. but Walter's co-worker is convinced this is not an accident.
Tangled layers of intrigue and deceit keep the reader wondering what-the-hell? until the ending. So sad and useless what people do for "lugh" and a pretty face. ( )

Wow, I haven't read this book since the 1970's and did not remember how great it was. Cain led to Chandler led to many others, but I see now, that Cain is the true master. On a side note the movie was terrible. ( )