If you only know these three novels by their Hollywood adaptations—well, then you’re not doing half bad, considering that they’d all rank high in just about anybody’s list of the top-ten all-time noir films. But the originals themselves are among the very best in his genre—however it is you define it. Despite Cain’s sainted place in the mystery canon, his novels are less crime stories than tales of dark psychology, populated by characters doomed by their own passions and mostly unable to sense impending destruction. For what it’s worth, Cain hated being pigeonholed among the detective set, and Raymond Chandler in turn thought he was a detestable vulgarian. (“But James Cain—faugh! Everything he touches smells like a billygoat. Such people are the offal of literature.”) If you’re a crime-novel buff, you’ll find this collection as sweet as sugar Cain. It also picks up five of his out-of-print short stories, each minor classics in the hardboiled tradition.
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