James M. Cain Books In Order

The Postman Always Rings Twice

An amoral young tramp. A beautiful, sullen woman with an inconvenient husband. A problem that has only one, grisly solution a solution that only creates other problems that no one can ever solve. First published in 1934 and banned in Boston for its explosive mixture of violence and eroticism, The Postman Always Rings Twice is a classic of the roman noir. It established James M. Cain as a major novelist with an unsparing vision of America’s bleak underside, and was acknowledged by Albert Camus as the model for The Stranger. Performed by Stanley Tucci

Double Indemnity

Double Indemnity is the classic tale of an evil woman motivated by greed who corrupts a weak man motivated by lust. Walter Huff is an insurance investigator like any other until the day he meets the beautiful and dangerous Phyllis Nirdlinger and falls under her spell. Together they plot to kill her husband and split the insurance. It’ll be the perfect murder…
THE AUTHOR James M. Cain was born in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1892. Having served in the US Army in World War 1, he became a journalist in Baltimore and New York in the 1920’s. He later worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. Cain died in 1977.

Mildred Pierce

Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for shiftless men, and an unreasoning devotion to a monstrous daughter. Out of these elements, James M. Cain created a novel of acute social observation and devastating emotional violence, with a hero*ine whose ambitions and sufferings are never less than recognizable.

The Root of His Evil

A thriller which tells of the deadly corrupting influence between love and money as one man falls desperately in love with an innocent girl who proves willing but inadequate in satisfying his overwhelming demands.

Sixty Years of Journalism

The late James M. Cain was a newspaperman, playwright, and novelist. Although best known for his controversial novels The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, Serenade, The Butterfly, and Past All Dishonor, Cain always considered himself a journalist, a ‘newpaperman who wrote yarns on the side.’ The book includes some of Cain’s best articles and essays. The material is sometimes serious, sometimes humorous and provides a unique look at 60 years of history.

Bronx Noir (By:S J Rozan)

Brand new stories by: Thomas Adcock, Kevin Baker, Thomas Bentil, Lawrence Block, Jerome Charyn, Suzanne Chazin, Terrence Cheng, Ed Dee, Joanne Dobson, Robert Hughes, Marlon James, Sandra Kitt, Rita Laken, Miles Marshall Lewis, Pat Picciarelli, Abraham Rodriguez Jr., S.J. Rozan, Steven Torres, and Joe Wallace.

S.J. Rozan was born and raised in the Bronx and is a lifelong New Yorker. She’s the author of eight novels in the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series, and of the stand alones Absent Friends and In This Rain forthcoming. Her books have won Edgar, Nero, Macavity, and Shamus awards for best novel. She’s at work on another series novel, Shanghai Moon.

Chicago Noir (By:)

Chicago Noir is a legitimate heir to the noble literary tradition of the greatest city in America. Nelson Algren and James Farrell would be proud. Stephen Elliott, author of Happy Baby If ever a city was made to be the home of noir, it’s Chicago. These writers go straight to Chicago s noir heart. Aleksandar Hemon, author of Nowhere ManBrand new stories by: Neal Pollack, Achy Obejas, Alexai Galaviz Budziszewski, Adam Langer, Joe Meno, Peter Orner, Kevin Guilfoile, Bayo Ojikutu, Jeff Allen, Luciano Guerriero, Claire Zulkey, Andrew Ervin, M.K. Meyers, Todd Dills, C.J. Sullivan, Daniel Buckman, Amy Sayre Roberts, and Jim Arndorfer. The city of Chicago has spent much time and money over the last decade marketing itself as a tourist friendly place for the whole family. It’s got a shiny new Millennium Park, a spaceship in the middle of Soldier Field, and thousands of identical faux brick condo buildings that seem to spring from the ground overnight. Chicago’s rough and tumble tough guy reputation has been replaced by a postcard with a lake view. But that city’s not gone. The hard bitten streets once represented by James Farrell and Nelson Algren may have shifted locales, and they may be populated by different ethnicities, but Chicago is still a place where people struggle to survive and where, for many, crime is the only means for their survival. The stories in Chicago Noir reclaim that territory. Chicago Noir is populated by hired killers and jazzmen, drunks and dreamers, corrupt cops and ticket scalpers and junkies. It’s the Chicago that the Department of Tourism doesn’t want you to see, a place where hard cases face their sad fates, and pay for their sins in blood. These are stories about blocks that visitors are afraid to walk. They tell of a Chicago beyond Oprah, Michael Jordan, and deep dish pizza. This isn’t someone’s dream of Chicago. It’s not even a nightmare. It’s just the real city, unfiltered. Chicago Noir.

Baltimore Noir (By:Laura Lippman)

Brand new stories by: David Simon, Laura Lippman, Tim Co*ckey, Rob Hiaasen, Robert Ward, Sujata Massey, Jack Bludis, Rafael Alvarez, Marcia Talley, Joseph Wallace, Lisa Respers France, Charlie Stella, Sarah Weinman, Dan Fesperman, Jim Fusilli, and Ben Neihart.

Laura Lippman has lived in Baltimore most of her life and she would have spent even more time there if the editors of the Sun had agreed to hire her earlier. She attended public schools and has lived in several of the city’s distinctive neighborhoods, including Dickeyville, Tuscany Canterbury, Evergreen, and South Federal Hill.

Los Angeles Noir (By:Denise Hamilton)

Brand new stories by: Michael Connelly, Janet Fitch, Susan Straight, Hector Tobar, Patt Morrison, Robert Ferrigno, Gary Phillips, Christopher Rice, Naomi Hirahara, Jim Pascoe, Scott Phillips, Diana Wagman, Lienna Silver, Brian Ascalon Roley, and Denise Hamilton. Denise Hamilton writes the Eve Diamond series. Her books have been shortlisted for the Edgar, Macavity, Anthony, and Willa Cather awards. The Los Angeles Times named Last Lullaby a Best Book of 2004, and it was also a USA Today Summer Pick and a finalist for a Southern California Booksellers Association 2004 award. Her fourth Eve Diamond novel, Savage Garden, is a Los Angeles Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Southern California Booksellers Association award for Best Mystery of 2005.

Wall Street Noir (By:Peter Spiegelman)

Brand new stories by: John Burdett, Peter Blauner, Charles Ardai, Henry Blodget, Twist Phelan, Larry Light, James Hime, Jason Starr, Lauren Sanders, Tim Broderick, Reed Farrel Coleman, Jim Fusilli, Mark Haskell Smith, and more.

Peter Spiegelman is the Shamus Award winning author of Black Maps Knopf, 2003, Death’s Little Helpers Knopf, 2005, and Red Cat Knopf, 2007, which feature private detective and Wall Street refugee John March. Spiegelman is a twenty year veteran of the financial services and software industries, and has worked with banks, brokerage houses, and central banks in major markets around the world. He lives in Connecticut.

Mexico City Noir (By:Paco Ignacio Taibo II)

Brand new stories by: Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Eugenio Aguirre, Eduardo Antonia Parra, Bernardo Fern ndez Bef, scar de la Borbolla, Rolo D ez, Victor Luiz Gonz lez, F.G. Haghenbeck, Juan Hern ndez Luna, Myriam Laurini, Eduardo Monteverde, and Julia Rodr guez. Paco Ignacio Taibo II was born in Gij n, Spain, and has lived in Mexico since 1958. He is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, which have been published in many languages around the world, including a mystery series starring Mexican Private Investigator H ctor Belascoar n Shayne. He is a professor of history at the Metropolitan University of Mexico City.

Haiti Noir (By:Edwidge Danticat)

Includes brand new stories by: Edwidge Danticat, Rodney Saint Eloi, Madison Smartt Bell, Gary Victor, M.J. Fi vre, Marvin Victor, Yanick Lahens, Louis Philipe Dalembert, Kettly Mars, Marie Ketsia Theodore Pharel, Evelyne Trouillot, Katia Ulysse, Ibi Aanu Zoboi, Nadine Pinede, and others. Haiti has a tragic history and continues to be one of the most destitute places on the planet, especially in the aftermath of the earthquake. Here, however, Edwidge Danticat reveals that even while the subject matter remains dark, the caliber of Haitian writing is of the highest order.

The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century

In The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century, best selling author Tony Hillerman and mystery expert Otto Penzler present an unparalleled treasury of American suspense fiction that every fan will cherish. Offering the finest examples from all reaches of the genre, this collection charts the mystery’s eminent history from the turn of the century puzzles of Futrelle, to the seminal pulp fiction of Hammett and Chandler, to the mystery story’s rise to legitimacy in the popular mind, a trend that has benefited masterly writers like Westlake, Hunter, and Grafton. Nowhere else can readers find a more thorough, more engaging, more essential distillation of American crime fiction. Penzler, BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES series editor, and Hillerman, whose Leaphorn/Chee novels have won him multiple Edgar Awards and millions of devotees, winnowed this select group out of a thousand stories, drawing on sources as diverse as ELLERY QUEEN’S MYSTERY MAGAZINE and ESQUIRE, COLLIER’S and THE NEW YORKER. Giants of the genre abound Raymond Chandler, Stephen King, Dashiell Hammett, Lawrence Block, Ellery Queen, Sara Paretsky, and others but the editors also unearthed gems by luminaries rarely found in suspense anthologies: William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Damon Runyon, Harlan Ellison, James Thurber, and Joyce Carol Oates. Mystery buffs and newcomers alike will delight in the thrilling stories and top notch writing of a hundred years’ worth of the finest suspense, crime, and mystery writing.