The Complete Crime Stories by James M. Cain

Published by MysteriousPress.com/Open Road on May 26, 2015

James M. Cain wrote in an era when real men slapped women around because that’s what real men did. Of course, it was also an era in which women slapped men who insulted them and who, motivated by profit or jealousy, murdered men while pretending to be their victims. And an era in which middle-aged men proposed to sixteen-year-old girls after being acquainted with them for five minutes -- to be followed, presumably, by a lifetime of slapping each other. At least that’s the world that Cain portrayed in these stories.

Most of the stories are relatively short but one of my favorites is relatively long. “Career in C-Major” deals with a “roughneck” contractor in the depression era and the woes he experiences after marrying a socialite who blames him for ruining her chance to become an opera singer. With the help of another singer, the husband devises a scheme to put his cold-hearted wife in her place. It’s an unusual love story about a man who falls in love -- with himself (or, at least, with his own voice) and with a woman whose identity comes as a surprise. “Career in C-Major” is the most substantial and most interesting story in the volume, but it doesn’t have a thing to do with crime.

Several other entries in this collection of crime stories are not crime stories, which might disappoint readers who want the book to live up to its title. They are nevertheless excellent stories. “Coal Black” is about a miner and a sixteen-year-old girl who get lost in a mine that the miner believes to be haunted (a superstition compounded by the bad luck of finding a female in a mine). Another story of two people thrown together in a dangerous environment, “The Girl in the Storm,” goes in a completely different direction.

“The Birthday Party” is an amusing story about an insecure, boastful boy who is embarrassed by his attempt to deceive a girl. “Mommy’s a Barfly,” one of the best titles in the history of short stories, is about a soldier, his wife, their little girl, and an eventful evening in a bar. “The Taking of Montfaucon” is a war story about a soldier who might have been awarded a medal if he hadn’t gotten lost.

The most compelling crime story (and my other favorite in the collection) is “The Money and the Woman.” A bank officer wonders if he’s been played for a sucker by a teller’s wife, but as the story unfolded, I kept changing my mind about whether the woman was an innocent victim or a con artist. The ending carries a nice surprise and the entire story builds suspense and intrigue.

Most of the other crime stories are also quite good. Without quite forming the intent to do so, a hobo named Lucky kills a railroad detective, then obsesses about all the ways in which he might get caught. “Dead Man” tells how Lucky deals with his sense of guilt. “Brush Fire” tells of a man who saves another man’s life, and then wishes he hadn’t.

Written in the style of a semi-literate narrator and steeped in the vernacular of its time, “The Baby in the Icebox” is a story of ironic justice involving a man who has no luck taming tigers, including his wife. A semi-literate narrator surfaces again in “Pastorale,” the story of a man who feels the need to confess his crime.

A miscommunication caused by a failure to distinguish one accent from another subjects a man to a hotel scam in “Two O’Clock Blonde.” A prison break and the chance to start a new life lead to an ironic ending in “Joy Ride to Glory.” A “Cigarette Girl” needs help with a gambling issue, and of course the guitar player who helps her immediately decides to marry her.

The collection includes three stories that fall below the standard set by the others. “Pay-Off Girl” is an uninspired story about rescuing a woman in trouble and giving her a better life. “The Robbery” is a nothing story about a man who confronts a neighbor he suspects of burglarizing his apartment. Set in Mexico, “Death on the Beach” is sort of a tragic (but not entirely believable) love story that revolves around a little boy who swims too far from shore. Other than those three, however, this is a strong collection that showcases Cain's mastery of the short story.

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