This novel is a significant departure for James Cain. The story involves no crime, and is told in the first person by a female character. Carrie is a waitress who is smart and ambitious beyond her assigned social station. She marries a man on impulse (not realizing that he is very wealthy and well - placed in society), and comes up against his sisters and mother, who seek to break up the marriage and send Carrie back to the working class environment from whence she came. However, they've met their match in Carrie, who outmaneuvers them all. She manages to use inside information from a young union organizer about the timing of upcoming strikes in order to buy and sell stocks, thereby gaining a fortune of her own. Throughout the story, two men capture her interests, her husband and the union organizer, and it's not at all clear how the story will end.

I was surprised that there was no hint of illegality in Carrie's use of inside information to make money on the stock market, but an attorney in the family tells me that her actions would not have been considered illegal. My only remaining disbelief lies with her interest in the sort of man her husband was -- self absorbed, spoiled, and spineless, and half- in love with his own mother.

While the denouement may be less than satisfying, this small work offers a moderately entertaining read, and for Cain, represents his first attempt at novels that transcend the limitations of the noir genre. Don't be misled by some of the tags members have applied; this novel is not "hardboiled", "detective" or a "mystery". Call it a modest little character study that takes place at the interface of upper and lower class in the USA in the late 1940s. ( )