James M Cain

A naïve young man follows a fallen woman to a Nevada mining town and risks his life to win her: "Entertaining . . . Cain [has a] flair for realistic detail." -The New York Times Early in the Civil War, the Confederacy sends Roger Duval to Sacramento to keep an eye on the situation in California in hopes of turning the Western territory toward the Southern cause. It's a plush assignment, well out of the line of fire, but he hasn't been there long...

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...

Frank comes to work for Cora and her husband in their California roadhouse and Frank and Cora become lovers.

Steamy tale of a drifter offered a job at a roadside diner by the owner, an easy-going older man. When the drifter and the owner's voluptuous wife fall in love, they plot to kill her husband and run away together.

Walter Neff is a smooth talking insurance salesman who meets the very attractive Phyllis Dietrichson when he calls to renew her husband's automobile policy. The couple are immediately drawn to each other and have an affair. They scheme together to murder Phyllis' husband for life insurance money with a double indemnity clause. Unfortunately, all does not go as planned. Barton Keyes is the wily insurance investigator who must sort things out.

Disc 1: The Maltese falcon: Some high-living lowlifes want to get their hands on a bejeweled falcon. Detective Sam Spade wants to find out why and find out who will take the fall for his partner's murder. The big sleep: L.A. private eye Philip Marlowe takes on a blackmail case and ends up wearing out his gumshoes trailing murderers, nightclub rogues, the spoiled rich and more. Disc 2: Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice decides to murder his wife for her...