Judging by its popularity on Goodreads, not too many people appear to be familiar with James M. Cain's novel "Double Indemnity". That's quite comprehensible, considering that first of all, it's a rather old book which has successfully been adapted into an equally old black-and-white Hollywood classic, and second of all, the story is rather dated and not quite as relevant or interesting today as it may have been thirty, fifty, eighty years ago. I still love it to death. Let me elaborate a bit on why I think this is such a great book (and, for that matter, such a great movie). Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity" from 1944 is one of my favorite movies of all time. I've seen it several times and never get tired of watching Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson and Jean Heather act the hell out of this script. At first, I wasn't even aware that Wilder's film was not based on an original screenplay like many of his other films (such as "The Apartment", "Some Like It Hot" or "Sunset Boulevard"). As soon as I found out, I didn't hesitate to seek out the source material and started reading it, all the while wondering what it was that fueled my fascination with Wilder's film to such an extent. After all, "Double Indemnity" tells an entertaining, exciting and engaging story, and it consists of numerous twists and turns you wouldn't necessarily expect, but is it completely original? We all have seen, heard and read fragments of this story before: An insurance representative falls in love with a housewife and lets himself be talked into a murder scheme involving insurance fraud. Any more details would reveal too much about the nature of the story, but let it suffice to know that the character of the femme fatale has appeared numerous times before, and so did the unsuspecting husband, the unfortunate protagonist or the investigator. At its heart, "Double Indemnity" is a classic thriller. Unlike today, when the landscape of novels is dominated by many mystery and thriller books seeking popularity and shock value by involving as many unexpected twists and turns as necessary to keep readers engaged, in the 1930s it wasn't quite as usual to read novels which saw the plot take a different direction every five pages or so without losing its credibility. I wouldn't consider the genre's popularity a problem at all, but the sheer quantity of contents available ensures that not too many plot twists can still come as a surprise to the reader. As a result, what is needed is the strength of the writer to ensure that no matter how a) original and b) absurd these plot twists are, they are credible enough to not cause the reader to lose their interest. James M. Cain excels at this task, and so does Billy Wilder in his award-nominated screenplay based on Cain's novel. The dialogue is absolutely perfect; there is not a single unnecessary line, and yet it feels like you are following these characters on their odyssey through Hollywood as though they really existed. Atmosphere and setting have always been two important aspects strongly connected to classic Noir films from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and they do likely play a major part in the film's success, but the film couldn't have been as great without Barbara Stanwyck's magnetic performance as the scheming Phyllis, and the novel couldn't have been as great without Cain's electrifying characterization of Phyllis. Perhaps I only love the film so much because Barbara Stanwyck is one of my favorite actresses and I have been fascinated with her career and her life for a long time, but reading the novel reinforced my opinion that this is one of the best thrillers ever written. It's the stuff classic Hollywood was made of and many future soap operas would take inspiration by, and James M. Cain probably found motivation in a few films released before his book only to take a completely new direction with his novel. It's not his only book which has successfully been adapted by Hollywood (two more of his novels are [b:The Postman Always Rings Twice|25807|The Postman Always Rings Twice|James M. Cain|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344265267s/25807.jpg|808562] and [b:Mildred Pierce|101205|Mildred Pierce|James M. Cain|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1171477039s/101205.jpg|430403]), but I genuinely can't imagine them to be as great as this. It's a rare case that I find the adaptation to be as great as the novel itself, but this is one of those instances. “I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.” Also, if you are not convinced yet: this book is really short at just about 100 pages, so if you have about three or four hours (plus two more hours to either watch "Double Indemnity" for the first time or to give it a rewatch) to spare, then why are you still hesitating?