Hardboiled genius James M. Cain turned 114-years-old over the weekend, prompting a flurry of memorial posts by some of the best crime writers on the web...Novelist (and pulp fiction scholar) Bill Crider weighed in: "Like a lot of you, probably, I still remember the first time I read The Postman Always Rings Twice. Wow! I got a copy of Double Indemnity and read that one. Wow, again! I saw the movies later. Wow, a third time!"
The Rap Sheet published a punchy essay about Cain's legacy.
Crime writer Tribe took a break from his fantastic World Cup coverage to talk about Cain, quoting another Great Writer who said Cain "smells like a billygoat."
Finally, mystery radio host Elizabeth Foxwell revived a old time radio drama adaptation of Cain's most famous novel. You know you want to listen!
Personally, I stand by Serenade as Cain's best book. This unhinged novel sends two doomed, sadistic lovers straight to hell in Mexico--all narrated in vivid, hardboiled first-person.
Enjoy these links, it's a great warm-up for my videoblogged interview with novelist Paul Malmont next week. Come back on Monday for a week's worth of hardboiled writing tips from a champion of pulp fiction...
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