Short Story Collections

From a famous tough-guy writer, a collection of shockingly funny stories Ever since she got married, Doris has regretted giving up her singing career. After years of domestic drudgery, she decides to take one last crack at becoming an opera singer, even if it means sacrificing everything for the sake of her dream. Her contractor husband is fully supportive, having no idea that the family’s true musical genius isn’t Doris—it’s him. In this and other stories in Career in C Major , James M. Cain shows off a light comedic touch that will surprise readers who are familiar only with his crime novels The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity . But Cain had been publishing funny stories, articles, and satire since his early days as a reporter for H. L. Mencken’s Baltimore Sun , and was just as comfortable writing about singers as he was about killers. This collection of Cain’s lighter work shows that if an author is tough it doesn’t mean he can’t crack a smile.

A collection of hardboiled crime fiction from the author of Double Indemnity , “one of the greats of American noir” ( The Guardian ). They call him Lucky—but he’s never had a lucky day in his life. A nineteen-year-old hobo just starting to ride the rails, he is hiding in the coal car when the railroad detective comes through. They get into a scuffle, and Lucky’s hand finds a railroad spike. . . . “Dead Man” is just one of the outstanding stories in this collection by the author renowned for insightful and exciting crime stories. Hailed as a “poet of the tabloid murder” by legendary critic Edmund Wilson and a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, James M. Cain, understood fear in all its forms—and knew better than anyone the terror of a killer on the run. This volume includes: “The Baby in the Icebox” • “Pay-Off Girl” • “Two o’Clock Blonde” • “The Birthday Party” * “Brush Fire” • “Coal Black” • “Career in C Major” • “Death on the Beach” • “Dead Man” • “The Girl in the Storm” • “Joy Ride to Glory” • “Pastorale” • “Mommy’s a Barfly” • “The Taking of Montfaucon” • “Cigarette Girl” • “The Robbery” • “Blackmail”