Double Indemnity (James M. Cain, 1936)

I've just finished Double Indemnity by James M. Cain - I wanted something quick and easy, and at just 136 pages this slice of classic crime fiction fit the bill. I read The Postman Always Rings Twice, Cain's previous novel, some time ago and liked it. Double Indemnity is in the same style, featuring a glamorous heroine and a hard-boiled hero plotting murder, yet I preferred this one. There's not a lot to write about it really, other than the story of a murder that is planned, carried out, and then covered up, is intricately plotted, and there are many twists, turns and double-crosses as the book heads towards it's conclusion. The language is snappy and stylish, and while there's little space taken up in descriptions of characters and moods, everyone is well sketched. Although the conclusion was a bit exposition-heavy, that's a fault of crime fiction generally and doesn't detract from the atmospheric, rollicking good read that Cain produced.