To The Last Page

James M Cain's was still working through drafts of his final novel The Cocktail Waitress when he died in 1977. The book remained unpublished until Hard Case Crime went looking for this lost book. It was well worth the effort, as the book has a lot of the classic characteristics and features of Cain's greatest works, The Postman Always Rings Twice  and  Double Indemnity , featuring a femme fatale who is married to a man she doesn't love, who takes up with a younger lover. Joan Medford in The Cocktail Waitress in fact seems to be particularly careless when it comes to husbands and that's something that relentless police are aware of and won't let it go. Joan’s husband has recently been killed in a road accident after a drunken episode at home. She seems to be incapable also of looking after her 3 year old son Tad, who is left in the care of her sister-in-law. Se is intent on keeping the child for herself and attempts to blacken Jean's reputation with suspicions t...