Double Indemnity
This is a first-person, noir yarn. There is no wise-cracking private eye caught between the criminal element and the corrupt cops trying to unravel the latest murder for the reader. The criminals are the stars of this story and rather proud of it.
Walter Huff is an insurance salesman who calls on the Nirdlingers to remind them that their automobile coverage is about to lapse. The Mrs. says that the Mr. is out so Huff will have to come back another time, but before he leaves she artfully queries him about accidental death policies since hubby has a dangerous job in the oil business.
This murder moves at warp speed. When Huff returns a few days later, he finds himself alone with the sultry Mrs. Nirdlinger. In the blink of an eye, they are in each other arms and before any critical buttons have been stealthily undone to release an urgently pressing prize into a lover's fondling caresses, before they know whether the other prefers an olive or a lemon twist in their martini, before they can whisper to one another that basic building block of any torrid love affair, "Is this good for you, Baby?" they have decided to murder Mrs. Nirdlinger's hubby and collect the double indemnity insurance policy that Huff will write to consummate their lust. Slam, bam, thank you, Ma'am!
After some strategic planning, careful rehearsals and critical analysis of their plot, the lovers kill Mr. Nirdlinger like a rabbit. From this point forward, the story is all about how the best laid plans of killers become politely unlaid, so to speak. Enter Huff's boss, the skeptical, unrelenting claims investigator Keyes. This is the literary artifice that gives this novella its delightful tension - the murderer working shoulder-to-shoulder with the investigator.
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am on a long overdue noir respite from history and high octane belle lettres. "Double Indemnity" follows my reading of Raymond Chandler's "The Lady in the Lake" and I cannot help but make a personal comparison between these two giants of the noir genre. Chandler, who was a linguist during WWI, has a much more graceful touch with narrative language as well as the tongue-in-cheek, tough guy smack talk that is the trademark of noir crime novels, while Cain is the more accomplished architect. After this story bolts from the gate like a high strung, thoroughbred filly, "Double Indemnity" unfolds in a most sophisticated manner.
Walter Huff is an insurance salesman who calls on the Nirdlingers to remind them that their automobile coverage is about to lapse. The Mrs. says that the Mr. is out so Huff will have to come back another time, but before he leaves she artfully queries him about accidental death policies since hubby has a dangerous job in the oil business.
This murder moves at warp speed. When Huff returns a few days later, he finds himself alone with the sultry Mrs. Nirdlinger. In the blink of an eye, they are in each other arms and before any critical buttons have been stealthily undone to release an urgently pressing prize into a lover's fondling caresses, before they know whether the other prefers an olive or a lemon twist in their martini, before they can whisper to one another that basic building block of any torrid love affair, "Is this good for you, Baby?" they have decided to murder Mrs. Nirdlinger's hubby and collect the double indemnity insurance policy that Huff will write to consummate their lust. Slam, bam, thank you, Ma'am!
After some strategic planning, careful rehearsals and critical analysis of their plot, the lovers kill Mr. Nirdlinger like a rabbit. From this point forward, the story is all about how the best laid plans of killers become politely unlaid, so to speak. Enter Huff's boss, the skeptical, unrelenting claims investigator Keyes. This is the literary artifice that gives this novella its delightful tension - the murderer working shoulder-to-shoulder with the investigator.
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am on a long overdue noir respite from history and high octane belle lettres. "Double Indemnity" follows my reading of Raymond Chandler's "The Lady in the Lake" and I cannot help but make a personal comparison between these two giants of the noir genre. Chandler, who was a linguist during WWI, has a much more graceful touch with narrative language as well as the tongue-in-cheek, tough guy smack talk that is the trademark of noir crime novels, while Cain is the more accomplished architect. After this story bolts from the gate like a high strung, thoroughbred filly, "Double Indemnity" unfolds in a most sophisticated manner.
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