The Postman Always Rings Twice

James Cain

You pick up a thriller with a title like "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and you kind of expect a postman to figure in the unmasking of the murderer or to provide the crucial piece in the prosecution's (or the defence's) case in court. But this book is more complicated than that. No postmen feature in the story and I guess the title refers to our hero getting nailed the second time after escaping the hangman first time round.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The hero and narrator is Frank Chambers, a drifter, and also Cora Papadakis's lover. He is also, before 60 pages are out, a murderer and the victim is Cora's husband, Papadakis himself. Frank and Cora cook the murder up between them. They are a stormy team, and despite escaping the murder charge via a dramatic and clever legal twist, they will both end the book destroyed by what they have done.

It's a decent tale spiced with erotic and violent undertones which apparently had the book banned when it first came out in the 1930s.