Skip to main content
Customer Review
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 October 2020
James Cain's classic novella of a young drifter attracted to a married woman who runs a petrol station/diner with her husband along a highway in southern California. They are immediately attracted to each other, embark upon a steamy affair and decide to killer the husband. The book has been immortalised in two films, a 1940s noir and a remake in the early 1980s. The plot has elements of tragedy, karma and irony about it which reflect the title. It's a short but entertaining read, and a book which works as well in the modern world, so it's not obvious that it was written in 1934.
