James M. Cain is a genius; there�s no denying that.
In just 136 brief pages he presents a classic crime-of-passion based novel, and one that�s part of the �Masterworks� library of the greatest crime fiction ever written� and though this was written back in 1936, it could have been written today, the dastardly plot and free-flowing prose are both that exquisite and downright exciting.
Insurance investigator Huff falls for Phyllis, and both plot to rid their lives of her husband in order to be theoretically �together forever� and to claim on his insurance as a huge bonus. Predictably, nothing goes to plan (even though things should, given the great detail they both go to in order to cover their murderous tracks) and �Double Indemnity� compellingly unfolds in a similar way to the movie �A Simple Plan,� ready for an awesome, open-ended climax which leaves you wondering about what fate holds for poor old Huff and his partner-in-crime, Phyllis.
Cain (1892 � 1977) is perhaps more famous for his 1934 novel �The Postman Always Rings Twice,� and he genuinely is an incredible storyteller.
The insurance business, according to Huff in this story, is �the biggest gambling wheel in the world.� But as they get more and more involved with each other and their alleged perfect murder, Huff soon doubts what they�re doing, admitting �Another thing that worried me was myself� and he just about goes insane with worry� �I walked three miles around the living room.� Immediately after the fabled murder, Huff�s blunt in confessing that �for the next twenty minutes we were in the jaws of death, not for what would happen now, but for how it would go together later.� Yet Phyllis double-crosses him and regrets flood Huff�s way like no tomorrow: �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� I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn�t have the money and I didn�t have the woman.� Once Huff realises he�s been made a fool of, there�s just one course of action he becomes obsessed with taking� and do begins Chapter 11 with the genius, shock line �I don�t know when I decided to kill Phyllis.�
But that�s all folks� that�s all I�m willing to give-away, because from there on in yet more buckled twists and condemned turns thwart his best laid plans to live his messed-up life as an otherwise good, honest man.
So �Double Indemnity� is the novel�s name, and your mission � which you will have to accept by default � is to read the beauty as soon as time, space and purebred innocence allow. (Steve Rudd)
ISBN 0-75284-769-4 (�ORION CRIME FICTION�)