Cloud nine

A twisted tale of heinous crimes and hidden motives by the legendary author of Double Indemnity.

Graham meets Sonya outside of his real estate office. She is sixteen, beautiful, and drops a bombshell—she's there because Graham's half-brother, Burl, raped her, leaving her frightened, pregnant, and very much alone.

All she wants is the $1,111 it will cost to hide out for the next few months in a convalescent home before she gives the baby up for adoption, but Burl won't give her the money. Sonya's vengeful father, meanwhile, wants far more from Burl—he is determined to make the scoundrel pay for harming his daughter.

Graham offers Sonya a better choice: He'll marry her so that she can get a legal abortion. The plan will save the family, and the business, from scandal. But Graham has no idea that, as he asks for Sonya's hand, he will be risking much more than just local gossip . . . Praise for James M. Cain's fiction

"Swift and absorbing." —The Wall Street Journal

"Lean, racing . . . stripped of inessentials." —The New York Times

"Nobody has quite pulled it off the way Cain does . . . not even Raymond Chandler." —Tom Wolfe