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.

A work of hard-boiled detective fiction from the master, James M. Cain. A drifter gets a job at an isolated diner and gas station, then quickly sinks into a lustful relationship with the proprietor's young, sexy wife. Because in the world of Cain's fiction only a beat separates the urge from the act, it is easy for the pair to move from consummated lust to a plan to murder the husband. The consequences unfold in surprising ways.

Books of the Century; New York Times review, February 1934 - Harold Strauss

Every so often a writer turns up who forces us to revalue our notions of the realistic manner, for, no less than reality itself, it is relative and inconstant, depending on the period, the fashion, the point of view. . . . [Cain's] story is a third as long as most novels, and its success is due entirely to one quality: Cain can get down to the primary impulses of greed and sex in fewer words than any writer we know of. He has exorcised all the inhibitions.

James M. Cain, journalist, novelist, and screenwriter, defined hard-boiled fiction with classics like Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Cain wrote stories about crime, sex, and betrayal. Born in Maryland in 1892, Cain moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting but found success as a novelist. In 1948 he moved back to Maryland, where he continued to write until his death in 1977.